


Finding Their Missing Piece

by marta1854



Category: The Walking Dead (TV)
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-08-12
Updated: 2018-11-06
Packaged: 2018-12-14 12:48:17
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 6
Words: 32,312
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11783478
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/marta1854/pseuds/marta1854
Summary: Troy Stratiotes, lifelong friend and adopted sister of Glenn Rhee, Vs Daryl Dixon, crossbow wielding redneck. She just cares about her brother and he just cares about his. Each know they hate the other so why do they always end up stuck together? Fate seems to be playing a sick joke on them. Will these two guarded hearts eventually open to the other or will they ice each other over more?





	1. Prologue-When the Dead Start Walking

Prologue – When the Dead Start Walking  
*****Troy’s POV****  
‘What in the world…’ I think watching the government video I had just hacked, having heard rumors of a new disease. According to the time stamp it was of a brain going dark over a few hours before a red light crawled up the brain stem and the body started moving again. The feeling of dread crept up then so I decide to look for similar events. “Oh shit…” I breathe out finding millions of hits all over the globe just then I hear the front door slam shut. Running out of my room and into the living room I find Glenn leaning against the door breathing hard. “Something bad is happening.” We each tell the other when our eyes meet causing each of us to chuckle. I walk over to the couch and turn on the TV and change the channel to the news. “Due to the raise in unexplained cannibalistic activity you are advised to stay indoors and lock your houses. Do not go outside. If you know anyone who has the following symptoms, quarantine them immediately. The symptoms are: coughing, fever, high temperatures, vomiting, and severe hallucinations. There is a refugee center in Atlanta, however if you aren’t in the immediate area, please do not go outside. Stay indoors. Lock your doors and windows. The Army and the National Guard will take care of it.” The news anchor says before the TV loses signal. “That’s not good.” We say causing each of us to look at each other and ask “You think?” With that he asks “What do you think we should do?” “Get out of here.”   
****Time Skip****  
Glenn and I share a ‘That isn’t good.’ When the radio went to static. We were trapped in the traffic jam heading out of the city with a similar jam heading into the city. That’s when loud explosions could be heard so we climb out of the car and watch as mushroom clouds rise in the city we just left. “Oh shit…” we both breathe out as people start freaking the fuck out. “We have to get out of here!” I tell Glenn jumping over the hood of our car to get to his side just before someone rams into its back end shoving it forward into the car in front of it. “Oh man…” Glenn groans knowing the car was now dead so I quickly say “Forget about it. Let’s go.” He nods so we dodge the fleeing and irrational people as we make our way to the median. We had just stepped food on the grass when the bloodcurdling screams started. Wide eyed we look back and see bloody and disfigured people slowly stumble out of the woods and start attacking other people. Sucking in a sharp breath I draw my pistols, disengage their safety, and hand one to Glenn. He gulps but takes it and nods, he wasn’t that good of a shot but was decent enough. His grandfather tried teaching us everything he knew about self-defense growing up but he couldn’t get the hang of it like I did. Glenn said it proved that we were meant to be siblings at the time, who would have thought that that would end up happening when my parents died when we were ten.  
We then make our way across to the other side of road to get farther away from the monsters flooding out of the woods but soon burned monsters started flooding from the city. “Help!” We hear a woman screech as she’s struggling with something inside her car. We rush over and I kick a monster away as Glenn helps the woman get the child out of its car seat. It slowly stands up so I shoot it in the chest but it keeps coming causing me to yell “Bloody hell!” before shooting it in the head. It crumbles but is replaced by two more. “It’s gotta be the head!” I scream hoping I was loud enough for people with weapons to hear me as I dispose of them. “Wait!” Glenn yells so I look back and see that the woman was running away from us. “Forget them! We have to get out of here!” I yell looking around for an empty vehicle we could use to get out of this. That’s when I see a couple breaking away from the jam and driving on the side seemingly knowing where to go. “Let’s go!” I shout pointing at them.   
We make it halfway there before I’m tackled to the ground by a monster unfortunately causing me to drop my pistol. “Damn it!” I yell in frustration quickly flipping us over and plunging my knife into its skull as Glenn yells my name. “I’m okay!” I yell ripping my knife out of its skull looking around for my gun. Unfortunately it had slid under a car causing me to curse under my breath as I reach for it and Glenn is freaking out. He was never calm in high stress situations. I get it and crawl out from under the car before breathing out another “Oh shit.” As the monsters seem to be multiplying. “Move your ass Glenn!” I shout pushing him in front of me as I dispose of enough monsters to empty my clip causing the gun to click faster than I would have liked. “Come on kids!” we hear then so we look and see an African-American guy waving at us from inside a church van. We change direction, run over as Glenn gives me the other pistol so I can dispose of them as we go, it clicks just as we get to the van. Hopping in the van I quickly shut the door behind us as Glenn tells the guy “Thanks.” “No problem.” He says starting to head in the direction the other cars were so I ask “Where’re we going?” “Don’t really know. I’m T-Dog by the way.” He tells us so Glenn tells him “I’m Glenn and this is my sister, Troy.” “Sister?” He asks so I inform “Adopted but friends before.”   
****Time Skip****  
In the morning we started setting up a camp at the quarry, it was too dark to do anything last night and a lot of people were still shook up. Pretty smart if you ask me, water and the prospect of animals in the woods. I was setting up the tent as Glenn went to help others with theirs. “Damn Girly. Whata ya say we look for some privacy so I can make this whole thing worthwhile for ya.” I hear a raspy and very southern voice say from behind me. Sighing I turn around and say “Na, don’t think so.” “Don’t be-“he starts reaching out for me so I purposefully miss cutting his hand off with my knife cutting him off stating “Don’t touch me.” As the small cut on his wrist started to bleed. For some reason I felt that he was only screwing around and wouldn’t actually hurt me but I had to be sure. “What the hell is going on over here?” the cop, or Shane Walsh as he introduced, asks walking over so I say “Nothing. Just seeing if I had a bandage for his cut.” The guy seems surprised but Shane is convinced and says “If she doesn’t we have one.” Before walking off. “Why’d ya do that?” the guy asks when he was out of earshot so I tisk and say “Don’t need Officer Friendly on me and my brother’s ass any more than already he is.” He grins but this time it isn’t a smirk or accompanied with a lustful look but a look of respect as he offers his hand and says “Merle Dixon.” “Troy Stratiotes.” I say actually shaking his hand once. “So do ya have somethin’ for this?” He asks then pointing to his cut so I state “Wuss.” He chuckles and says “I like ya, Girly. If ya need anything just come ta big bro Merle here.” “I’ll keep that in mind when I need walker bait.”


	2. Chapter 1-Lovely Guts

Chapter 1 – Lovely Guts  
Major Time Skip Around Two Months  
****Glenn’s POV****  
Me, Troy, Morales, Jacqui, T-Dog, and Andrea were getting ready to leave for a run into town when Merle shouts “Hey, room for one more?!” as he walks over to us, his rifle already on his shoulder. “No.” Troy states not even looking up from loading her clips since she already didn’t like the fact that we had to go in a group this time. “Oh come on Girly. What’s one more?” He asks her so before she can start a fight I say “Fine, but you all have to listen to me and Troy.” This earns a few hushed complaints from the others, a groan from Troy, and him saying “I might listen to Girly, not ya.” For some reason Troy was the only person in camp that Merle would listen to, without complaining, and the only woman he didn’t hit on. It was a strange type of relationship between her and the older Dixon, which I didn’t know how it started. Looking past him I see Daryl watching the scene a few feet from the woods, a glare directed at Troy. Unlike Merle, Daryl and Troy didn’t get along at all, there wasn’t a day that went by that the two didn’t get in a fight with each other, about anything. It was like they hated the others existence yet always ended up being stuck together in tasks around camp.  
****Time Skip****  
We led the group to the department store before Troy and I left to scout out other places. “Glenn.” Troy says suddenly causing me to stop and look at her. She’s pointing at something down at the street so I go over and watch a cop on a horse run from a horde of walkers into another group near the tank. The horse goes down but the guy scrambles under the tank shooting walkers with his gun as he goes. When his head pops up through the top of the tank walkers start climbing it to get to him so he quickly shuts it. I pull out the radio and ask him “Hey you, dumbass. Yeah you in the tank, are you cozy in there?” A minute or so goes by so Troy grabs the radio and asks “You alive in there?” “Hello? Hello?” comes from the radio then so I take it back and say “There you are. You had us wondering.” “Where are you? Outside? Can you see me right now?” the cop asks so I answer “Yeah, we can see you. You’re surrounded by walkers. That’s the bad news.” “There’s good news?” he asks earning a sigh from Troy as I say “No.” “Listen, whoever you are, I don’t mind telling you. I’m a little concerned in here.” He says causing me to say “Oh man. You should see it from over here. You’d be having a major freak-out.” “Got any advice for me?” He asks so I say “Yeah, I’d say make a fun for it.” “That’s it? Make a run for it?” He asks so Troy takes the radio from me and says “Look, it’s not as dumb as it sounds. You’ve got eyes on the outside here. There’s one geek still up on the tank but the others have climbed down and joined in on eating the horse. With me so far?” “So far.” He replies so she continues “Okay, the street on the right side is less crowded. If you move now while they’re distracted, you stand a chance. Got ammo?” “In that duffel bag I dropped out there, and guns. Can I get to it?” He asks so I grab the radio from her and say “Forget the bag, okay? It’s not an option. What do you have on you?” “Hang on…I’ve got a Beretta with one clip, 15 rounds.” He says so I say “Make ‘em count. Jump off the right side of the tank, keep going in that direction. There’s an alley up the street, maybe 50 yards. Be there.” “Hey, what’s your names?” He asks so Troy grabs the radio and says “Have you been listening? You’re running out of time.” As we head to the fire escape to get him. “Right.”  
****Troy’s POV****  
A few minutes and shots later the cop is pointing his gun at Glenn so he yells “Whoah! Not Dead! Come on! Come on! Back here! Come on! Come on!” as we lead him back to the fire escape. “What are you doing?! Come on!” Glenn yells at him when he stops when his gun clicks. I push him forward so we both scramble up the ladder. Glenn helps us onto the platform and we’re all panting. “Nice moves there, Clint Eastwood. You the new sheriff come riding in to clean up the town?” Glenn asks as I look down at the growing number of walkers reaching for us. “It wasn’t my intention.” He says so Glenn says “Yeah, Whatever. Yeehaw. You’re still a dumbass.” “Rick, thanks.” The cop says holding his hand out for him to shake so Glenn takes it and says “Glenn, thank Troy she’s the one that noticed.” “Time to go.” I say then noticing the walkers start to grab the ladder before turning and start heading up the ladder to the roof as Glenn says “Bright side: It’ll be the fall that kills us. I’m a glass-half-full kind of guy.”   
As Glenn and Rick got closer I help them up. We start walking on the other roof as Rick asks “You the ones who barricaded the ally?” still out of breath. “Somebody did.” I say so Glenn adds “I guess when the city got overrun. Whoever did it was thinking not many geeks would get through.” As we jog to the way inside the building. I open it as Rick asks “Back at the tank, why’d you stick your necks out for me?” “Call it foolish, naïve hope that if Troy or I’m ever that far up shit creek, somebody might do the same for us. Guess we’re an even bigger dumbass than you.” Glenn tells him as I slide down the ladder. I wait at the bottom for them and take up the rear as Glenn leads us back to the department store. Running down the stairs Glenn pulls out the radio and says “We’re back. Got a guest plus four geeks in the alley.” We make it down the stairs and the walkers notice us. I pull out my knife and push past Glenn going for the one closest to us as a door opens up and Morales and T-Dog come out with baseball bats and hit the two closest to the door. Rick and Glenn start running to the door as I take down the last standing zombie in the alley. The guys are beating the other two walkers’ faces in as I follow Rick and Glenn as he says “Let’s go!” We get to the door and T-Dog yells “Morales, let’s go!” before they run into the room with one closing the door behind them.  
All of a sudden Andrea points a gun in Rick’s face, with the safety on, and says “You son of a bitch. We ought to kill you.” “Just chill out Andrea. Back off.” Morales says so Jacqui adds “Come on, ease up.” “Ease up? You’re kidding me, right? We’re dead because of this stupid asshole.” Andrea says so Morales walks up to her and says “Andrea, I said back the hell off.” Glenn is standing next to me watching her, not wanting her wrath directed towards him. I know that her safety is on so I’m not that worried. Morales then says after the long pause “Well, pull the trigger.” She sighs and backs off of Rick and tells Rick “We’re dead, all of us, because of you.” Rick looks at me and Glenn before he says “I don’t understand.” Morales then takes Rick to the front of the store with all of us in tow, and says “Look, we came into the city to scavenge supplies. You know what the key to scavenging is? Surviving! You know the key to surviving? Sneaking in and out, tiptoeing. Not shooting up the streets like it’s the O.K. Corral.” “Every geek for miles around heard you popping off rounds.” T-Dog adds so Andrea point out “You just rang the dinner bell.” “Get the picture now?” Morales asks. They were all looking at the walkers knocking on the front of the store when a walker with a rock started to bang on the window and it started to crack. “Oh god.” Andrea says and they all back up. I stay where I was calculating how long it would take for the walkers to break both windows. “What the hell were you doing out there anyway?” Andrea asks Rick at this I look at him wanting to know as well. “Trying to flag the helicopter.” He says. I sigh and slowly make my way over to the first set of doors as T-Dog says “Helicopter? Man, that’s crap! Ain’t no damn helicopter.” “You were chasing a hallucination, imagining things it happens.” Jacqui says so Rick replies “I saw it.” Before Glenn asks “Troy what do you think you’re doing?!” finally noticing me as I am now knocking on the first set of doors checking how strong they may be. They all sigh as I make my way back over to them stating “Just checking.” So Morales says “Hey, T-Dog, try that C.B. can you contact the others?” “What others? The refugee center?” Rick asks causing Jacqui to say sarcastically “Yeah, the refugee center. They’ve got biscuits waiting at the oven for us.” “Got no signal. Maybe the roof.” T-Dog say as there was a gunshot that came from the roof. “Oh no. Is that Dixon?” Andrea asks causing me to quickly run to the roof ignoring what the others are saying.  
****Merle’s POV****  
I was laughing and shooting walkers in the head when I hear Troy from behind me yell “Merle!” Turning I grin at her but it fades when the others burst through the door with Morales yelling “Hey, Dixon, are you crazy?!” “Hey! Y’all be more polite to a man with a gun! Huh?” I say jumping down from the ledge and adding “Only common sense.” “Man, you wasting bullets we ain’t even got! And you’re bringing even more of them down on our ass! Man, just chill.” T-Dog says then so I say “Bad enough I got this taco-bender on my ass all day. Now I’m gonna take orders from you? I don’t think so, bro. That’ll be the day.” walking towards T-Dog so he asks. “That’ll be the day? You got something you want to tell me?” “Hey, T-Dog man, just leave it. It ain’t worth it alright.” Morales says causing T-Dog to say “No.” “Now Merle, just relax, okay? We’ve got enough trouble.” Morales adds as Troy is obviously annoyed now so I ask T-Dog “You want to know the day?” “Yeah.” He answers so I say “I’ll tell you the day, Mr. “yo.” It’s the day I take orders from a nigger.” At this T-Dog takes a swing at me but I hit him with the rifle. “Hey, Merle that’s enough.” The cop says running up as Andrea yells “Come on.” I punch the cop causing Troy to run up and pull me away saying “Okay. I think they get it. Calm the fuck down.” I was going to calm down but she gets punched by T-Dog with enough force to knock her over. “Fucking hell!” She yells the bruise already forming on her face as Glenn runs to her side causing me to be enraged so I push T-Dog harshly causing him to fall and hit his head on one of the pipes. “Merle! I’m fine!” I hear Troy yell but I was pissed, no one is allowed to hurt her like that and get away with it. Kicking T-Dog once before I say “We’re gonna have ourselves a little powwow, huh? Talk about who’s in charge. I vote me. Anybody else? Huh? Democracy time, y’all. Show of hands, huh? All in favor? Huh?” as they pull him away. Troy is no longer paying attention to what’s happening as she’s looking up at the sky a frown growing on her face so I continue “Come on. Let’s see ‘em.” “Oh, come on.” Andrea says but I start seeing hands so I say “All in favor? Yeah. That’s good. Now that means I’m the boss, right? Yeah. Anybody else? Hmm? Anybody?” “Yeah.” The cop says before hitting me with the butt of the rifle and handcuffing me to one of the pipes. “Who the hell are you, man?!” I ask/yell causing him to get in my face and say “Officer Friendly.” Backing up he adds “Look here, Merle. Things are different now. There are no niggers anymore. No dumb-as-shit, inbred white-trash fools either. Only dark meat and white meat. There’s us and the dead. We survive this by pulling together, not apart.” “Rick.” Troy tries to defuse the situation but I tell, the cop or Rick, “Screw you, man.” “No Troy. Your friend seems to make a habit of missing the point.” He tells her clearly using his cop voice so I say “Yeah? Well, screw you twice.” As she says “He’s not my friend.” He’s obviously pissed that I’m not cooperating and points my gun at my head saying “Ought to be polite to a man with a gun. Only common sense.” “You wouldn’t. You’re a cop.” I tell him causing him to lower the gun and say “All I am anymore is a man looking for his wife and son. Anybody that gets in the way of that is gonna lose. I’ll give you a moment to think about that.” He then starts to pat me down and then finding my stash he adds “Got some on your nose there.” And flicks me in the nose before getting up. “What are you gonna do? Arrest Me?” I laugh watching him walk away to a now confused Troy. “Hey! What are you doing? Man that was my stuff! Hey! If I get loose, you’d better pray-Yeah, you hear me, you pig?! You hear me?!” I yell when he throws it off the building. “Yeah, your voice carries.” He says walking to the opposite end of the roof with Morales following him. “Do you hear me, you filthy pig?!” I yell at him again before shutting up when Troy gives me a glare.   
“How’s the signal?” Morales asks when him and Rick walk back over causing T-Dog to say “Like Dixon’s brain. Weak.” “More like non-existent.” Troy corrects causing Glenn to say “I think you pissed her off Merle.” “No shit.” I state as Morales says “Keep trying.” “Why? There’s nothing they can do. Not a damn thing.” Andrea says walking over to her bag so Morales explains “Got some people outside the city is all. There’s no refugee center. That’s a pipe dream.” “She’s right. We’re on our own. It’s up to us to find a way out.” Rick says then so I look at Andrea and say “Good luck with that. These streets ain’t safe in this part of town from what I hear. Ain’t that right, sugar tits? Hey, honeybunch. What say you get me out of these cuffs, we go off somewhere and bump some uglies? Gonna die anyway.” Who says “I’d rather.” “Knock it off…I have a plan but yer not going to like it so if we can come up with something else I suggest we try that first. I estimate we have five hours before they break through the doors down there but maybe only two for my plan to work.” Troy says so Rick asks “What about under the streets? The sewers?” “Good idea.” Troy states running over to look over the edge of the building into the alley with Glenn. “Bloody hell.” Troy mutters as Glenn says “No manhole covers. They must be all out on the street where the geeks are.” As they come back over. “Maybe not. Old building like this built in the ‘20s-big structures often had drainage tunnels into the sewers in case of flooding down in the subbasements.” Jacqui says causing Glenn to ask “How do you know that?” “It’s my job-was. I worked in the city zoning office.” She replies so Troy asks Glenn “Could that hole be it?” “Maybe.” He replies so all of them but T-Dog leave to check it out.  
“Anybody out there? Hello? Anybody read? I’m hoping to hear somebody’s voice ‘cause I’m getting sick and tired of hearing mine.” T-Dog says into the radio so I say “Yeah, well, that makes two of us. Why don’t you knock that crap off? You’re giving me a headache, boy.” and spit on the ground next to me. “Why don’t you pull your head out of your ass? Maybe your headache will go away. Try some positivity for a change. Damn.” T-Dog says so I say “I’ll tell you what, you get me out of these cuffs and I’ll be all “Sammy Sunshine” positive for you. Hey, see that hacksaw over there in that tool bag? Get it for me, Hmm? Make it worth your while. What do you say, Man? Come on. Get me out of these things.” “So you can beat my ass again? Or call me nigger some more?” T-Dog says so I say “Come on now. It wasn’t personal. It’s just that your kind and my kind ain’t meant to mix. That’s all. It don’t mean we can’t, work together, parley, as long as there’s some kind of mutual gain involved. So….about that hacksaw-“ “I guess you want me to get that rifle over there too, so you can shoot that cop when he comes back up, huh?” T-Dog asks causing me to repeat “Huh.” before the group comes back to the roof and look over it with binoculars.  
****Troy’s POV****   
“That construction site, those trucks-they always keep keys on hand.” Rick says handing the binoculars to Morales who says “You guys will never make it past the walkers.” “You got me out of that tank.” Rick says to Glenn and I causing him to say “Yeah, but they were feeding. They were distracted.” “Can we distract them again?” Rick asks me more than Glenn. “I’ve told you you’re not going to like it.” I say causing Merle to say “Right. Listen to her. She’s onto something. A diversion, like on Hogan’s Heroes.” “God. Give it a rest.” Jacqui tells him but Rick asks “They’re drawn by sound, right?” “Right, like dogs. They hear a sound, they come.” Glenn says so Rick asks “What else?” “Aside from they hear you? They see you, smell you and if they catch you, they eat you.” Morales says and Rick being a special kind of stupid he is asks “They can tell us by smell?” “Good god you’re an idiot.” I say while Glenn asks “Can’t you?” “They smell dead, we don’t. It’s pretty distinct.” Andrea explains causing Rick to look at me and ask “Is your plan what I think it is?” “Probably.”   
*****Time skip to chopping up walkers Wayne Dunlap and John Smith*****  
Rick breaks the glass to get the fire ax, goes to chop one of the walkers but he stops, takes off the face guard, throws it and the ax on the ground, and searches for something on the walkers. He pulls out each of their wallets and starts going through it saying “Wayne Dunlap. Georgia license. Born in 1979. John Smith. Georgia license. Born in 1988.” As he hands the licenses to Glenn he adds “Wayne had 28 dollars in his pocket when he died…and a picture of a pretty girl. “With love, from Rachel.” John had an engagement ring in his pocket when he died and picture of little girl. “Mary, age 3.” They used to be like us worrying about bills, or rent, or the super bowl. If I ever find my family, I’m gonna tell them about Wayne and John.” Rick puts the face guard back on and gets the ax as Glenn says “One more thing-They were organ donors.” Before Rick starts to chop them up with the ax. As he was doing it everyone, but him and I, was groaning in disgust. He hands the ax and face guard to Morales and tells him to “keep chopping.” “I’m so gonna hurl.” Glenn says leaning over. I pat his back as Rick says “Later.” When Morales was done Rick says “Everyone got gloves? Don’t get any on your skin or in your eyes.” Before everyone gets some goop and smears it on Rick, Glenn, and I. “Oh, God. Oh, Jeez. This is really bad.” Glenn says so Rick tells him “Think about something else…puppies and kittens.” “Dead puppies and kittens.” T-Dog says. At this Glenn turns and vomits as I mutter a sarcastic “Nice.” and Andrea says “That is just evil. What is wrong with you?” Then Jacqui says “Next time let the cracker beat his ass.” “I’m sorry, yo.” T-Dog apologizes causing Glenn to say “You suck.” “Do we smell like them?” Rick asks then so Andrea replies “Oh yeah.” Before pulling out her gun and holding it out to Glenn saying “Glenn. Just in case.” He stands so she places in the front of his pants as Rick says “If we make it back, be ready.” ‘Rick stop jinxing us!’ I yell at him in my head as T-Dog asks “What about Merle Dixon?” Rick then pulls out the key to the handcuffs and throws it to T-Dog without a word.   
****Time skip till in the street before the rain*****  
Rick has the ax and his gun, Glenn has Andrea’s gun and a crowbar, and I have my knife, my twin pistols, and my bow, I had gotten on one of Glenn and I’s runs, as we make our way to the street from the alley. We fake limp to distract the few walkers that were now in the alley so we’re slow as we make it to the bus that blocks the crowd of walkers from the alley. We crawl under it and slowly make our way down the street. I hear thunder again so I pick up my pace a bit but I’m still going slow enough that the walkers are still fooled. Then Glenn whispers “It’s gonna work. I can’t believe it.” “Don’t draw attention.” Rick whispers back just as a walker starts to walk between them looking at Glenn. “How come I get stuck with the ones that jinx themselves?” I mutter to myself as it leaves them but it starts to rain, my prediction of having less than an hour being correct, and the walkers start to notice us. I look at Rick as Glenn asks “The smell’s washing off. Isn’t it? Is it washing off?” “No, it’s not. Well, maybe.” Rick says after a walker takes a long look at him and the ones we are passing start to follow us. Then one of them roars and goes for Rick, he chops its head with the ax and yells “Run!” He didn’t have to tell me twice as I started sprinting to the fence with Glenn and Rick a few feet behind me as I was faster than them. “Hurry up boys!” I call as I took out a few walkers as I went and Glenn and Rick did the same. I was dropping down on the other side of the fence when they got there and threw their weapons over and stated to jump up the fence. They dropped down as I was taking off the coat with the guts. They did the same as I stabbed some of the walkers in their eyes. Glenn went to get the keys as Rick shot some of the walkers that managed to climb the fence a few feet back. “Rick!” Glenn yells throwing him the keys he caught them and we ran to one of the vans. Rick starts the engine and we take off we have to smash through the fence on the other side of the site. “Oh my god. Oh my god. They’re all over that place.” Glenn yells in a panic. “You need to draw them away. Those roll-up doors at the front of the store, that area? That’s what I need cleared. Raise your friends. Tell them to get down there and be ready.” Rick says so Glenn says. “And we’re drawing the geeks away how? I-I missed that part.” “Noise.” Rick answers.  
A few minutes later we find a sports car that is in good shape and Rick stops the car and asks us “Can you get into it and start it?” I nod, take the crowbar from him and break the window so the car alarm goes off. “I could have done that.” Rick says so I say “Yeah. But I wanted to.” as I knock out the remaining glass and open the door. Using a screw driver I found in the back of the van I start the engine and get out for Glenn to get in. “Don’t be stupid.” I tell him so he says “You too.” I nod before going over and climbing in the back of the van as Rick gets into the driver’s seat. We go out of the lot with Glenn following.  
“Where’s Merle?!” I ask/yell seeing T-Dog without him. “I dropped the key down the drain.” He says causing me to jump out of the van and yell “Go! I’ll get him out!” before taking off to get to him with them yelling that he wasn’t worth it. “Shit, shit, shit, shit.” I mutter quickly my path to the roof blocked by a group of walkers. ‘Alley!’ I think turning and sprinting out of the building and into the alley, up the steps, up the ladder and to the roof. “Merle?!” I call earning a “Troy?! Should’ve left me!” “Like hell!” I call back before walking back so I can get enough momentum to get across the gap. “Troy! Don’t ya dare do what I think ya goin’ ta do!” Merle yells so I call “How else am I supposed to get over there?!” before I sprint. As soon as my foot touched the edge I jumped and rolled when I landed. “Do ya got a death wish?!” He practically screams at me as I walk over next to him.  
****Merle’s POV****  
“I made it didn’t I?” Troy says kneeling down beside me and starts digging through her bag so I tell her “Should a just left me.” “Na, don’t think so.” She tells me so I say “And ya didn’t wanna screw me.” Referring to when we met. “Yer cuffed to a pipe and yer making jokes?” She asks, obviously not amused by it, so I ask “Seriously, why’d ya come back fer me?” “It’s not that I care or anything. It’s my fault yer cuffed here.” She says before walkers crash against the door seemingly stopped by something causing us both to say “Fuck.” “No, I started it. Sorry.” I tell her then gently touching the bruise causing her to sigh before changing the subject back to our original dilemma by saying “I don’t have anything to pick the lock.” “Let’s get it over with then.” I tell her moving into a position that she could get a clean cut so she asks “You sure? Won’t Daryl come back for ya?” “He might.” I tell her causing her to sigh out “Don’t blame me then. Wrap yer belt around yer elbow.” “Ya know what yer doing?” I ask causing her to say “Yeah…This isn’t the first time I’ve done somethin’ like this.” “Alright then.” I say wrapping my belt around my elbow so she says “This is probably going to hurt. Don’t scream.” While shoving a rag in my mouth. I’m about to retort as she pulls out her knife but she says “Guess what.” I mumble a “What?” so she looks me in the eyes and says “It’s the same hand I cut when we met.” Before starting the task.  
****Time Skip****  
“Come on, we got to cauterize it.” Troy says pulling me to my feet after wrapping the rag around the stump and I grab the wrench from the fallen tool bag. “Ya got some balls, Girlie.” I groan out as she leads me over to the other door on the roof. “Yeah. They’re on my chest.” She says causing me to chuckle at her before she says “I’ll need you to walk on your own. We don’t know if they’ll be any in here.” “Well I got actual balls.” I tell her as I stop leaning against her so she says “Not much of an accomplishment.” As she leads us down the stairs. “Right in the ego.” I chuckle out earning a “Right. Now shut up.”   
On the way she takes down two walkers and I take down one with the wrench. “This’ll probably hurt more.” She announces as we walk into a small kitchen area. “Ya enjoying this ain’t ya?” I ask her as she starts the fire causing her to say “No. I’m stating facts, Dixie.” With that she turns to her task of heating a tool made of metal. “Dixie?” I ask so she looks over her shoulder at me and says “Since yer last name is Dixon.” “What about Daryl, then?” I ask earning a “Don’t care.” Before she shoves another rag in my mouth adding “Look, I really don’t want ya to scream.” ‘This is only half-way necessary isn’t it?’ I think growling at her before she places the burning metal against my skin. “Sorry.” She apologizes when she was done before taking a bayonet out of her bag and handing it to me with an “I got your back, you got mine.” “Sure thing Girly.” I tell her so she goes over to one of the windows. Seeing it’s locked she wraps the rag around her hand before braking it and climbing through with a “Come on.” Seeing that the ally was surprisingly not full of walkers I go to say something but before I can even get a word out she says “Don’t ya dare.” I chuckle out a “Ya don’t like jinxes?” earning a “Damn straight.”  
****Troy's POV****  
“Move your ass!” I yell turning around quickly and grabbing Merle as I take off in the opposite direction of the horde of walkers just chilling in the street. We run until we’re cut off by another horde earning an “Oh shit.” From both of us as we spin back around and run into an alley. “Go! I’ll lead them away!” I yell basically pushing him up the fire escape in the alley earning a “No way! I ain’t leavin’ ya!” “Yeah ya are! I know this city and where I can go to escape! You can’t fit there! So go!” I yell pulling my bow off my back and start expertly disposing of the walkers that start stumbling into the alley. When he reluctantly climbs up the ladder I yell “Meet me back at the department store! If I’m not there by morning leave without me!” “Ya better be there!” He yells at me so I call “The only one who can beat me is me!” before taking off down the alley and quickly turning down the other alley.  
****Time Skip****  
“Shit.” I breathe out slamming the door to the apartment behind me and hearing the few walkers scratch and bang against it. I wasn’t expecting to run into another idiot survivor not even bothering to be quite. “Hey!” I shout at the guy as he opens the window and starts to climb out of it so he grins before coming back in and slowly stalk towards me. ‘Oh hell no.” I think noticing the guy’s now lust filled gaze as he looks me up and down and the involuntary sense of fear bubbles up in my chest. “Yer a little bitch aren’t ya? Makes me want ta see ya scream and writhe under me.” He growls so I glare and warn “I will kill you.” He chuckles but I see the flash of fear in his eyes as his eyes glance at my hand that holds my walker-blood stained knife. Then the fight starts as he pulls out a knife himself and runs at me. Unfortunately he was a lot stronger than me and I didn’t have the space I needed to quickly take him out so I had to resort to getting the knife away from him and a knee to his crotch. This just pisses him off causing him to grab me by the neck and slam me back into the door. The back of my head hits it painfully causing pain to explode from the spot and black starts to instantly swim on my vision. That’s when he starts choking me, leans in, and says “I was going to make it enjoyable for you but now I’m going to rip you apart.” “Go to hell.” I choke out head-butting him causing him to stumble back stunned so I quickly tackle him, grab his own knife, and plunge it into his head. My lungs and throat burn as I gasp for breath and I roll off of him before the darkness overtakes me.  
****Glenn’s POV****  
"Whoohoo!" I screamed as I passed the cube van that held the others. ‘I hope T-Dog unlocked Merle. I need to thank him for getting upset that Troy got hurt.’ I think as I pull up next to the other cars at camp as the others run to the car. I park and get out as Shane yells "Holy Crap. Turn that damn thing off!" "I don’t know how." I say laughing before Amy bombards me with questions "Is she okay? Is she alright?” “She’s okay! She’s okay!” I tell her so she asks, more distraught “Is she coming back? Why isn’t she with you? Where is she? She’s Okay?" "Yes! Yeah, fine. Everybody is. Well, Merle not so much." I answer as someone disconnects the battery. “Are you crazy, driving this wailing bastard up here? Are you trying to draw every walker for miles?” Shane asks so Dale says “I think we’re okay.” “You call being stupid okay?” Shane asks so Dale explains “Well, the alarm was echoing all over these hills. Hard to pinpoint the source. I’m not arguing. I’m just saying. It wouldn’t hurt you to think a little more carefully next time, would it?” “Sorry. Got a cool car.” I say causing Dale to nod reluctantly. It’s then that the cube van pulls up.   
Andrea jumps out and runs to Amy, and Morales goes to his wife and kids saying "I told you I'd be back, didn’t I?" I feel dread creep up as I don’t see Troy, Merle, or Rick come out of the van and I’m about to ask but Morales yells "Hey, Helicopter boy! Come say hello." Rick then come a few feet before he stops and look at Lori and Carl with a look of disbelief. That’s when Carl starts running yelling “Dad!” Rick meets him half way as Lori looks shocked for a few moment before she goes over and hugs both of them. “Where’s Troy and Merle?” I ask then and my heart drops when T-Dog says “I dropped the key down a drain…She went back for him. I’m sorry Glenn.” “She’s okay. She’ll be here in the morning…I know she will.”  
****Time Skip****  
We listen to Rick describe what happened as we eat when suddenly Dale asks Rick “Have you given any thought to Daryl Dixon? He won’t be happy to hear his brother was left behind.” “I’ll tell him. I dropped the key. It’s on me.” T-Dog says so Rick says “I cuffed him. That makes it mine.” “Guys, it’s not a competition. I don’t mean to bring race into this but it might sound better coming from a white guy.” I say so T-Dog says “I did what I did. Hell if I’m gonna hide from him.” “We could lie.” Amy suggests causing Andrea to say “Or tell the truth. Merle was out of control. Something had to be done or he’d have gotten us killed. Your husband did what was necessary. And if Merle got left behind, it is nobody’s fault but Merle’s. Besides, Troy went back for him.” “And that’s what we tell Daryl? I don’t see a rational discussion to be had from that, do you?” Dale asks Andrea before looking around at the others and adds “Word to the wise…..We’re gonna have our hands full when he gets back from his hunt.” “I was scared and I ran. I’m not ashamed of it.” T-Dog says causing Andrea to ask “We were all scared. We all ran. What’s your point?” “I stopped long enough to chain that door. Staircase is narrow. Maybe half a dozen geeks can squeeze against it at any one time. It’s not enough to break through that-not that chain, not that padlock. My point, Dixon’s alive and he’s still up there, handcuffed on that roof. That’s on us.” T-Dog says causing me to yell “And you let her go back for him?!” “We tried stopping her.” Andrea says but I shake my head feeling the tears start to sting my eyes so Dale tries to comfort me by saying “I’m sure she’s okay. She knows how to handle herself.”  
****Time Skip****  
“Look at ‘em. Vultures. Yeah, go on, strip it clean.” I say watching Dale and Jim take apart the sports car, trying to keep my mind off the fact that Troy wasn’t back yet. “Generators need every drop of fuel they can get. Got no power without it. Sorry, Glenn.” Dale tells me so I say “Thought I’d get to drive it at least a few more days.” “Maybe we’ll get to steal another one someday.” Rick tells me before walking away leaving me too my thoughts.  
***3rd Person’s POV****  
Merle was growing erratic now. Troy hadn’t shown up yet and it was already morning. Merle didn’t want to have to accept the fact that she was probably dead and because of him. He’d grown attached to her…and he knew given time Daryl would’ve too. She was different than any woman he’d met, she made him believe that they were better for more than one thing. He waited for an hour before he hung his head and left to kill every one of the bastards back at his camp except Daryl and maybe Glenn. It would be the least he could do for her. Then he’d come back into the city to find her and take care of her, whether it be re-killing her or just burying her body.   
****Daryl’s POV****  
While tracking the deer I heard the kids’ screams from camp and picked up my pace, I didn’t care about the others really but the kids were a different matter. I reach a clearing with everyone pointing their weapon in my direction. I was sort of surprised that I didn’t’ see Troy but I just assumed that she was with the kids then not that I cared where she was. I then see my deer and a decapitated Walker. “Son of a bitch. That’s my deer! Look at it. All gnawed on by this…” I yell walking over to the walker and start kicking it adding “Filthy, disease-bearing, motherless proxy bastard!” “Calm down, son. That’s not helping.” Dale tells me so I approach him saying “What do you know about it, old man? Why don’t you take that stupid hat and go back to On Golden Pond?” turning away I start to pull out my arrows adding “I’ve been tracking this deer for miles. Gonna drag it back to camp, cook us up some venison. What do you think? Do you think we can cut around this chewed up part right here?” “I would not risk that.” Shane says so I sigh and tell them “That’s a damn shame. I got some squirrel, about a dozen or so. That’ll have to do.” But then I hear the walker opens its mouth so I shoot it in the head as I say "Come on, people. What the hell? It’s gotta be the brain. Don’t y’all know nothing?” I get my arrow back before walking off towards camp yelling “Merle! Merle! Get your ugly ass out here! I got us some squirrel! Let’s stew ‘em up.” “Daryl, just slow up a bit I need to talk to you.” Shane says so I stop and ask “About what?” “About Merle. There was a-There was a problem in Atlanta.” He tells me walking in front of me so I look between him and a new guy twice before asking “He dead?” “We’re not sure.” Shane answers so being angry now I yell “He either is or he ain’t” New guy then walks up to us and says “No easy way to say this, so I’ll just say it.” “Who are you?" I ask/yell at him whipping around causing him to pause before saying "Rick Grimes." "Rick Grimes, you got something you want to tell me?” I ask him causing him to tell me “Your brother was a danger to us all, so I handcuffed him on a roof, hooked him to a piece of metal. Troy went back for him. They’re still there.” “Hold on. Let me process this. You’re saying you handcuffed my brother to a roof and you left him there?!” I ask/yell getting angrier until I see red as I look at an equally upset Glenn and Rick just answers “Yeah.” So I throw the squirrels at him and go to punch him but Shane pushes me down. I pull out my knife and T-Dog yells “Watch the Knife!” I stand up and try to stab Rick but he dodges. I was then restrained by Shane and put in a headlock. “Best let me go!” I warn Shane who just says “Nah, I think it’s better if I don’t.” “Choke hold’s illegal.” I grunt then so he says “You can file a complaint. Come on man. We’ll keep this up all day.” Rick then came over and kneeled in front of me saying “I’d like to have a calm discussion on this topic. You think we can manage that?” I don’t respond so he repeats “You think we can manage that?” With a nod Shane releases me so Rick says “What I did was not on a whim. You’re brother does not work and play well with others.” “It’s not Rick’s fault. I had the key. I dropped it.” T-Dog jumps in then walking forward. “You couldn’t pick it up?” I asked angry. “Well, I dropped it down a drain.” He says so I say “If that’s supposed to make me feel better it don’t.” “Well, maybe this will. Look I chained the door to the roof so the geeks couldn’t get at him. With a padlock.” T-Dog says so Rick says “It’s gotta count for something.” “Hell with all ya’ll! Just tell me where they are so’s I can go get ‘im.” I say, no matter how much I hate the girl she still went back for Merle so I had to do the same for them, before Lori says “He’ll show you.” We all look at her so she asks “Isn’t that right?” Rick nods and says “I’m going back.”  
****Time Skip****  
“They better be okay. It’s my only word on the matter.” I tell T-Dog as we ride in the back of the van. “I told you the geeks can’t get at him. The only thing that could get through that door is a living person.” He says causing Glenn to pipe up “You better be right.” Before stopping the van and adding “We walk from here.” We all get out and start to jog towards the city. When we go through an opening in a fence Rick asks “Merle and Troy first, or guns?” “Merle and Troy! We ain’t even having this conversation!” I growl out causing Rick to look at Glenn and say “We are. You know the geography. It’s your call.” “Merle and Troy’s closest. The guns would mean doubling back.” Glenn answers and I wondered if it was the truth or not as we start jogging again.


	3. Chapter 2 – Pain & Apologizing

****Daryl’s POV****

            Neither Merle nor Troy are on the roof but a sawed off hand. I started breathing hard. I yell spinning around to shoot T-Dog but Rick puts gun to my head. Rick cocks his gun and tells me “I won’t hesitate. I don’t care if every walker in the city hears it.” I slowly lower my crossbow and ask T-Dog “You got a do-rag or something?” He hands me one so I sigh and go over to Merle’s hand as he says “I guess the saw blade was too dull for the handcuffs.” “Ain’t that a bitch.” I say picking up the hand and wrapping it up before adding “They must have used a tourniquet, maybe his belt. Be much more blood if they didn’t.” going over and putting it in Glenn’s bag. They follow me as I follow the blood trail to an open door. “Merle! Troy! You in here?” I call out, getting no reply I head down the stairwell. Looking through the offices for any sign of Merle or Troy the others stay in the hallway being useless. I knew Glenn was barely holding it together so I didn’t blame him. I only find one walker so I shoot it before joining the others as we walk into a large room to find two walkers with single knife wounds in their heads and one with their head bashed in by a wrench that’s on the ground next to them. “Had enough in him to take out these two sumbitches. One handed. Toughest asshole I’ve ever met, my brother. Feed him a hammer, he’d crap out nails.” I says as I reload my crossbow and Rick being a smartass says “Any man can pass out from blood loss, no matter how tough he is. Besides, Troy’s probably the one who took down the two not Merle.”

****Rick’s POV****

“Merle! Troy!” Daryl yells as we are in the doorway of what looks like kitchen. “We’re not alone here. Remember?” I ask whispering but Daryl says walking into the kitchen “Screw that. He could be bleeding out. You said so yourself.” “Shh” T-Dog says as we turn a corner and see travel stoves still burning, a belt, bloody rag, metal thing with burnt flesh and blood on it, and blood over almost everything. I pick up the metal thing and Glenn asks “What’s that burned stuff?” “Skin. They cauterized the stump.” I say simply looking at Glenn who looks disgusted. “Told you he was tough. Nobody can kill Merle but Merle.” Daryl says looking at me so I say “Don’t take that on faith. He’s lost a lot of blood.” “Yeah? Didn’t stop them from busting out of this death trap.” Daryl says walking over to the broken window and sticks his head through it. The others come over as Glenn asks “They left the building? Why the hell would they do that?” “Why wouldn’t they? They’re out there alone as far as they know, doing what they’ve got to do. Surviving.” Daryl says as he walks away from the window. “You call that Surviving? Just wandering out in the streets, maybe passing out? What are his odds out there? Even with Troy with him?” T-Dog asks being a little bit of an ass. “No worse than being handcuffed and left to rot by you sorry pricks. You couldn’t kill him. Ain’t so worried about some dumb dead bastard.” Daryl says as he gets in my face “What about 1000 dumb dead bastards? Different story?” I say before Daryl starts to walk away saying “Why don’t you take a tally? Do what you want. I’m gonna go get him.” I push him back saying “Daryl, Wait.” “Get your hands off me! You can’t stop me.” Daryl yells at me so I say “I don’t blame you. He’s family, I get that. I went through hell to find mine. I know exactly how you feel and Glenn is feeling the same thing you do right now. Merle and Troy can’t get far with that injury. We could help you check a few blocks around but only if we keep a level head.” “I could do that.” Daryl says before T-Dog says “Only if we get those guns first. I’m not strolling the streets of Atlanta with just my good intentions, okay?” We all agree and start to make a plan.

****Troy’s POV****

            I wake up and my head is pounding, the side of my face where T-Dog accidently punched me is throbbing, and my neck is sore. I wince as I sit up and my joints crack painfully. I breathe out a “Fucking hell.” When I see that it’s almost noon. I stand slowly causing the room to spin meaning I probably had a concussion. I kick the man’s corpse once muttering “See ya in hell.” I then start making my way back to the store. I exit an alley only for something to run into me causing us to hit the floor and my head to spin at the sudden movement. “Troy?!” A familiar voice whisper yells causing me to open my eyes quickly. Sure enough there was Glenn, leaning over me causing me to chuckle out “In the flesh.” “Where’s Merle?” He asks pulling me up so I say “Don’t know. We got trapped, told him to meet me back at the store as I lead them away.” “Daryl’s not going to be happy about that…anyway come on.” He says so I follow him as we head over to the tank in the street. “So what happened to you?” He asks as he picks up the bag of guns and I pick up the hat. “Some asshat tried to rape me.” I answer as we start heading to a nearby alley causing him to quickly ask “He didn’t do anything to you right?” “Other than give me a concussion and almost choke me to death, no.” I tell him before we hear someone yelling “Ayudame!”

****Daryl’s POV****

            Glenn had left a few minutes ago when I heard footsteps behind me. I come out from behind the dumpster and aim at a kid who quickly says “Whoa don’t shoot me! What do you want?” “I’m looking for my brother and a girl. He’s hurt real bad. You seen them?” I say but he starts yelling “Ayudame!” “Shut up! You’re gonna bring the geeks down on us. Answer me.” I say then stepping closer I add “Answer me.” But he continues to yell “Ayudame! Ayudame! Ayudame!” so I knock him over and go to cover his mouth saying “Shut up. Shut up. Shut up.” I finally get my hand over his mouth when I’m kicked in the side and start to get kicked and hit with a baseball bat. One of the guys then says “That’s it! That’s the bag, vato. Take it! Take it!” and run after Glenn and surprisingly Troy. “Fucking hell!” Troy yells as she and Glen get caught before the guys punch them down and start to kick them. Glenn’s yelling and trying to get away but Troy isn’t moving anymore so I shoot one of the guys in the ass as I’m beyond pissed at this point. He starts yelling and the other grabs Glenn who starts yelling “Get off me!” A car pulls up and a guy gets out and grabs Troy as the others are pulling Glenn to the car who’s yelling “Daryl! Daryl!” I aim my crossbow but they use them as a shield even though Troy is knocked out. I start running at them as they get in the car and drive off yelling “Come back here! You sumbitches!” But I have to close the gate as the walkers are now there. Glancing at the ground I see Troy’s bow and arrows so I pick them up before I yell as I run at the kid and push him into a wall just as Rick and T-Dog come running up the alley. “Whoa, Whoa, Whoa! Stop it!” Rick yells pushing me away from the kid so I yell “I’m gonna kick your nuts up in your throat!” “Let me go.” The kid yells so T-Dog tells him “Chill out.” “They fucking took Glenn and _Troy_! That little bastard and his little bastard homie friends! I’m gonna stomp your ass!” I yell as Rick holds me back. “Guys! Guys! We’re cut off!” T-Dog yells so Rick says “Get to the Lab. Go.” Before getting the stupid bag of guns. He pauses so I say “Come on. Damn, let’s go.” He grabs the hat and we all start running back.

****Time skip****

            When we get back to the lab and I start pacing trying to figure out why I was so pissed off that they took Glenn and Troy. I mean I hate the girl, so why was I so pissed to see the harsh bruises on her face and around her neck? “Those men you were with, we need to know where they went.” Rick tells the kid but he says “I ain’t telling you nothing.” “Jesus, man. What the hell happened back there?” T-Dog asks causing me to yell “I told you, this little turd and his douchebag friends came out of nowhere and jumped me.” “You’re the one who jumped me, puto, screaming about trying to find his brother and some girl like it’s my damn fault.” The kid accuses. “They took Glenn and _Troy_. Could have taken Merle too.” I say before wondering why I said Troy’s name the way I did. But the kid knocks me out of thinking by saying “Merle? What kind of hick name is that? I wouldn’t name my dog Merle. Or _Troy_ for that matter.” Copying the way I had said it. I go to kick him but Rick stops me as he says “Damn it, Daryl. Back off.” ‘Why am I more pissed off at what he said about Troy than Merle?’ I think as I go over to Glenn’s bag and Troy’s bow and arrows. I avoid looking at the bow as I get Merle’s hand out of Glenn’s bag  and start unwrapping it asking the kid “Want to see what happened to the last guy that pissed me off?” before throwing it on him. He screams and jumps out of the chair so I get in his face grabbing him by the shoulders saying “Start with the feet this time.” Rick pulls me off him and says “The men you were with took our friends. All we want to do is talk to them see if we can work something out.” The kid then tells us were they are and all I can think about as we go there is Troy’s unconscious and bruised body being used as a shield and being pulled into that car.

****Rick’s POV****

            As Daryl paces I tell the kid “Those men you were with, we need to know where they went.” “I ain’t telling you nothing.” He replies so T-Dog asks “Jesus, man. What the hell happened back there?” “I told you, this little turd and his douchebag friends came out of nowhere and jumped me.” Daryl yells so the kid accuses him “You’re the one who jumped me, puto, screaming about trying to find his brother and some girl like it’s my damn fault.” “They took Glenn and _Troy_. Could have taken Merle too.” Daryl says and I look at him wondering if he knows he put an emphases on Troy’s name for the second time. “Merle? What kind of hick name is that? I wouldn’t name my dog Merle. Or _Troy_ for that matter.” The kid says coping the way Daryl said Troy. Daryl then goes to kick him but I stop him saying “Damn it, Daryl. Back off.” Daryl then goes over to Glenn’s bag and Troy’s bow and arrows. I watch him as he avoids looking at the bow, gets Merle’s hand out of Glenn’s bag, and start unwrapping it asking the kid “Want to see what happened to the last guy that pissed me off?” before throwing it on him. He screams and jumps out of the chair and Daryl gets in his face grabbing him by the shoulders saying “Start with the feet this time.” I pull him off and tell the kid “The men you were with took our friends. All we want to do is talk to them see if we can work something out.” The kid then tells us were they are and I think of reasons why Daryl would put an emphases on Troy’s name and get upset when the kid did the same as we go to get Troy and Glenn. Though I come to a conclusion very quickly.

****Time skip to retirement home****

We get to the place and I look around corner and ask T-Dog “You sure you’re up for this?” as he’s going to be our cover. “Yeah.” He says while nodding so I say “Okay.” As T-Dog goes to roof Daryl looks at the kid and says “One wrong move, you get an arrow in the ass…just so you know.” “G’s gonna take the arrow out of my ass and shove it up yours. Just so you know.” The kid says looking at him. I look at the kid and ask “G?” “Guillemo. He’s the man here.” He answers. “Okay then.”  I say looking at Daryl and cocking my gun before adding “Let’s go see Guillemo.” We then all go through the hole and walk towards large wood doors. We stand there a bit with our weapons trained on it when a guy I assume to be Guillemo walks towards us. He stops and asks “You okay, little man?” “They’re gonna cut off my feet, carnal.” The kid says causing him to ask “Cops do that?” “Not him. This redneck puto here. He cut off some dude’s hand, man. He showed it to me.” The kid says and Daryl tells him to “Shut up.” “Hey that’s that vato right there, homes. He shot me in the ass with an arrow. What’s up, homes, huh?” A guy with a gun pointed at Daryl says as he walks towards us. Guillemo pushes it down saying “Chill, ese, chill. Chill. This true? He wants Miguelito’s feet? That’s pretty sick, man.” “We were hoping more for a calm discussion.” I say. “That hillbilly jumps Felipe’s cousin, beats on him, threatens to cut off his feet. Felipe gets an arrow in the ass and you want a calm discussion? You fascinate me.” Guillemo says so I counter with “Heat of the moment. Mistakes were made on both sides.” “Who are they to you anyway? You don’t look related.” Guillemo asks. “They’re one of our group, more or less. I’m sure you have a few like them.” I say before Daryl asks “You got my brother in there?”

“Sorry, we’re fresh out of white boys. But I’ve got Asian and a pretty girl with a bad bump on the head. You interested?” Guillemo asks. Daryl looks ready to tare Guillermo’s head off with his bare hands so I say “I have one of yours who’s not hurt, you have two of mine one of who’s hurt. Sounds like an even trade.” “Don’t sound even to me.” He counters causing the kid to beg “G? Come on, man.” “My people got attacked. Where’s the compensation for their pain and suffering? More to the point, where’s my bag of guns?” Guillemo says so I ask “Guns?” “The bag Miguel saw in the street. The bag Felipe and Jorge were going back to get. That bag of guns.” He answers so I state “You’re mistaken.” “I don’t think so.” He counters so I counter back “About it being yours. It’s my bag of guns.” “The bag was in the street. Anybody could come around and say it was theirs. I’m supposed to take your word? What’s to stop my people from unloading on you right here and now and I take what’s mine?” He counters again so I say “You could do that.” Then look at T-Dog and add “Or not.” Guillemo pauses and looks at T-Dog, a minute later he yells “OYE!” looking up at the roof. Three guys bring Glenn and Troy into view, the bags over their heads are ripped off and they have duct tape over their mouths, Glenn is looking at us hopeful but Troy is visibly pissed off. “I see two options. You come back with Miguel and my bag of guns, everybody walks. Or you come back locked and loaded, we’ll see which side spills more blood.” Guillemo says before looking at T-Dog then at me then his group starts to go back so we go back to the lab.

****Troy’s POV****

            Glenn and I are taken to the roof by three guys with bags over our heads and duct tape over our mouths, which was because I kept swearing at them. I’m beyond pissed off at these dumbasses now, and really want to kick at least one off the roof. First they make my concussion worse and now put a bag over my head and drag me to the roof. The bags are ripped off our heads and I see Daryl, Rick, and the dumbasses. Glenn is whimpering beside me as I’m glaring Guillermo, the stupid leader guy who didn’t listen to Glenn and I. I look closer at Daryl and see that he’s staring at us and looks ready to rip someone’s head off with his bare hands if he had too ‘Does he think they have Merle too?’ I ask myself but then we’re pulled back and we get the bags over our heads again.

****Time skip****

            I’m resting my head on a table, the coolness sort of helping the pain, when Mr. Gilbert starts having an asthma attack. I go over and get him to copy me while the nurse’s grandmother goes to get him. I’m breathing deeply through my nose nodding six times before letting it out slowly, calming Mr. Gilbert so he doesn’t panic and make the attack worse, as nurse boy comes in with Rick, Daryl, and T-Dog in tow. “What the hell is this?” Rick asks so Glenn answers “An asthma attack. Couldn’t get his breath all of a sudden.” “I thought you guys were being eaten by dogs, man.” T-Dog says at this they look at the Chihuahuas sitting on a dog bed, the fluffy one barks at them causing me to groan, the sound causing my head to pound. “Could I have a word with you?” Rick asks Guillermo as nurse boy tells me “You have a concussion and thanks for keeping him from panicking.” “No shit Sherlock.” I say before Glenn and I walk over to T-Dog and Daryl as Rick talks to Guillermo. “Take a picture it’d last longer.” I growl at the two staring at me causing them to look away from me, I knew I probably look like shit as I was sure to have angry looking bruises on my face and around my neck. “I’m sorry…I didn’t get to apologize for hitting you.” T-Dog says then causing me to sigh and say “It was an accident. I was in the way.”

****Glenn’s POV****

            The look Daryl gave T-Dog when he apologized for hitting Troy was confusing. It was like the one Merle got when it happened, but why? All they’ve ever done was fight or completely ignore the other so why was he so pissed? But his face goes back to neutral as we follow Rick and Guillermo into another room. “What about the rest of your crew?” Rick asks as I lean on the back wall next to Troy as Guillermo explains “The vatos trickle in to check on their parents, their grandparents. They see how things are and most decide to stay. It’s a good thing too. We need the muscle. The people we’ve encountered since things fell apart, the worst kind-plunderers, the kind that take by force.” “That’s not who we are.” Rick says causing Guillermo to say “How were we to know? My people got attacked and you show up with Miguel hostage-appearances.” “Guess the world changed.” T-Dogs says causing Troy to say, bitterly, “No. It’s the same as it ever was. The weak get taken.” Everyone but me gives her a questioning look but Guillermo says “We do what we can here. The vatos work on those cars, talk about getting the old people out of the city. But most can’t even get to the bathroom by themselves, so that’s just a dream. Still, it keeps the crew busy, and that’s worth something. So we barred all the windows, welded all the doors shut except for one entrance. The vatos, they go out, scavenge what they can to keep us going. We watch the perimeter night and day and we wait. The people here, they all look to me now and I don’t even know why.” “Because they can.” Rick says then before handing his shotgun over to Guillermo. “So…Troy, did Merle do that to you?” T-Dog asks suddenly causing Rick to pause while adding guns to the pile on the desk and him and the others to look at her as Daryl says “Ya should be askin’ where Merle is.” “We got trapped. I told him to meet me back at the store as I lead them away. That’s when I ran into the asshat that gave me a concussion, tried raping me, and choked me half to death.” She explains like it wasn’t that big a deal as the others give her a ‘How are you so calm about that?’ look.

****Troy’s POV****                                                           

            After saying bye to the Vatos I follow Glenn and the others to get his bag and my bow and arrows that Daryl had apparently picked up for me then we headed to where they said they left the van. Daryl was pissed that they only found me, which I don’t blame him for. We’re almost out of the city when Glenn says “Admit it, you only came back to Atlanta for the hat.” “Don’t tell anybody.” Rick says causing me sigh. “You’ve given away half our guns and ammo.” Daryl says and I frown not liking his attitude. “Not nearly half.” Rick says looking at me, probably gaging my reaction. “For what? Bunch of old farts who are gonna die off momentarily anyhow? Seriously, how long you think they got?” Daryl asks causing me sigh out “Shut up.”  “How long do any of us?” Rick asks before a fight can start out between Daryl and I, like normal. “Boys…We might have a problem.” I state then looking forward at the still empty road in front of us causing them to stop and look as well. “Oh my god.” Glenn says as my frown deepens. “Where the hell’s our van?” Daryl asks so Glenn asks “We left it right there. Who would take it?” “Merle.” Rick says causing Daryl to look at him and say “He’s gonna be taking some vengeance back to camp.” “Well that’s just great.” I state sarcastically so Rick then looks at me and asks “Do you know how to hot wire a car?” “Yeah but we’d have to back track to find a working car. I doubt we have time for that.” I state so we start to run.

****Time skip till dark****

            Screams and gun shots were all I needed for me to push my limits and sprint the rest of the way to their camp leaving the others in the dust. I show up just as Amy gets bit on her neck. I quickly close the distance and tackle it off her and stab it in the head with one of my arrows. I quickly stand up and start shooting the walkers going after her, Andrea, and the others in camp making their way to the R.V. The walkers are dwindling and I’m running out of arrows as Rick and the others show up with Rick yelling “Baby! Carl!” Carl runs to him just as we take down the rest of the walkers. Everyone is panting and I turn and drop down next to Andrea putting my hands on hers adding presser as she cries “I don’t know what to do, Amy.” A few seconds later Amy dies and Andrea starts to wail “Amy!” I scoot back to give her space to grieve and take in the chaos while silently apologizing to Amy and the others for not getting here faster.


	4. Chapter 3 – Favors

****Daryl’s POV****

            When we heard the screams and gun shots coming from camp Troy took off and was out of sight in seconds. We pick up the pace ourselves and start shooting when we make it to camp. I see Troy in front of Andrea and Amy shooting walkers that come near with her bow. Her face was expressionless as she shoots walker after walker and I make my way towards her noticing that she’s running out of arrows. As I finish beating one’s face in I see her turn and drop down next to Andrea putting her hands on hers adding presser to Amy’s neck. A few seconds later Amy’s hand drops from Andrea’s face as she dies. Andrea starts to wail as Troy scoots back away from them and looks around at the chaos before worry floods her face. “Glenn?!” She calls then standing up and looking around specifically for him. “I’m okay!” Glenn answers running over to her and hugging her, causing me to be a little angry. We went back to get Merle and her, not just her. “I remember my dream now, why I dug the holes.” Jim says then.

****Glenn’s POV****

            “Glenn…I’m about to pass out…” Troy mutters starting to slump against me. I grip her tighter just before she goes limp causing Rick to run up asking “What’s wrong?” “She pushed herself too hard and passed out.” Daryl says walking over surprisingly reading the situation perfectly causing me to laugh half-heartedly and say “She did it a lot when we were kids.” Hinting that she’d probably do it again. Rick seems to get an idea and asks “Daryl can you please take Troy back to Glenn’s tent?” “Why? Glenn can do it.” Daryl grunts going to walk away so, having picked up on what Rick was trying to do, I said “I might drop her…” trailing off since Daryl had already taken her from me, sighed, and picked her up before stalking off towards our tent. Rick gives me a ‘that worked’ look so I sigh out “I don’t think so.” “Why?” he asks so I say “Nothing’s going on between them…and if there was neither will admit it and give in.”

****Troy’s POV****

            _“No!” I screech pounding my small fists against the guys back as I’m thrown over his shoulder. “No! Please don’t hurt my baby!” Mom cries only to start just screaming when there’s a gunshot. I’m thrown into the back of a van as there’s another gunshot and the screaming stops. I try to scramble away but the man grabs me and forces my hands behind my back. My hands get tied by rope and I kick out, my foot connecting with his chin. He growls before slamming his fist into my face but suddenly I’m no longer in the van but chained in a familiar cement room. I struggle against the chains and whip my head in the direction of the door opening. Standing there is a devilish man a disgusting grin on his face. “Welcome back, Helen.” He says and I open my mouth to scream but nothing comes out, my throat too raw from screaming to scream. Oh, the irony. I scramble away as he approaches his features turning to those of a walker. My back hits the cold cement wall causing my eyes to go wide but I don’t beg instead I spit out “Go to hell.” I could almost swear it smirked before ripping out my neck._

I bolt up sweating and rub my neck as I still feel the burning pain from in the dream. I look around and realize I’m in Glenn and I’s tent and that it’s already morning. I run a hand through my damp hair before crawling out of the tent. I stretch and look around. Daryl is pick-axing those who died head’s, Andrea is still morning the loss of Amy next to her, Lori is walking away from her, Rick is walking back from the hill and over to the group at the cooking station, watching Andrea. Glenn, T-Dog, Jim, Morales, and Jacqui are moving the bodies either into a fire or in a row of others. Rick starts to walk over to Andrea after talking with the others about something so I follow not really liking the look on his face. It was one of pity that’s the last thing she wants/needs to see. Rick goes to sit down and using his cop voice says “Andrea.” She points her gun at him and says “I know how the safety works.” Staring at him, he nods saying “Alright. Okay. I’m sorry.” Slowly backing up with his hand up “I’m sorry. I’m sorry.” he says putting his hand down and continues to back up. She slowly turns the gun to me so I just stare at her and step forward putting my hands on hers and squeeze it softly as I look at Amy. Andrea nods at me so I kneel down next to her as she looks back at Amy. I put my hand on one of Amy’s and close my eyes telling her in my head ‘I know I didn’t know you that well but you didn’t deserve to die.’ I look at Andrea as she gives me a quiet “Thank you.” I nod and go over to Rick, Shane, Lori, Carol, and Dale at the same time as Daryl is and saying “Y’all can’t be serious. Let that girl hamstring us? That dead girl’s a time bomb.” I just glare at Daryl daring him to say what I know he was getting at as Rick asks “What do you suggest?” Stepping forward Daryl says “Take the shot. Clean, in the brain from here. Hell, I can hit a turkey between the eyes from this distance.” I’m pissed and about to hit Daryl when Lori says “No. For God’s sakes, let her be.” Sitting down. Rick looks at Shane who nods then at Daryl with his “no” face on. Daryl then looks at all of us but avoids me, scoffs and walks away. I narrow my eyes at Daryl and follow him, he was pissed and I wasn’t going to let him hurt Glenn or anyone in this camp, physically or emotionally.

“Wake up, Jimbo. We’ve got some work to do.” Daryl says passing Jim who doesn’t look the best. I chalk it up to the heat as I’m sure I don’t look the best either. My bruises sure to be in that ugly stage of deep blue and purple as Daryl goes to help Morales drag a body. Morales says “Thanks.” And they start to drag the body to the fire when Glenn says “What are you guys doing? This is for geeks. Our people go over there.” Pointing to the other group of bodies. “What’s the difference? They’re all infected.” Daryl says so I go over and push him away and state “I suggest you retract that statement.” While getting in his face as Glenn says “Our people go in that row over there. We don’t burn them! We bury them. Understand?” Daryl slowly looks between Glenn and I, so Glenn says pointing “Our people go in that row over there.” Morales, Daryl, and I then drag the body to the row as Daryl says “You reap what you sow.” Before letting go. “You know what? Shut up, man.” Morales says as we set down the body as Daryl walks away saying “Y’all left my brother for dead.” Pauses and points at Andrea adding “You had this coming.”  Before walking away and picking up the pick-axe again. I quickly move in front of him and growl “I went back for him!” He glares down at me saying “Yet he’s not here and ya are. Did ya really go after ‘im? Or did ya run when ya couldn’t get through the door?” “Ya know what? Merle’s alive and he left so don’t be holdin’ that on anyone but him.” I tell him causing him to scoff and ask “What ya know about losin’ family, Huh? Ya got yer brother, I don’t.” “Yer so fucking stupid I wonder how yer still alive. Glenn wasn’t always my brother, or did ya miss when I said I was adopted?” I state causing him to lose his glare but that didn’t stop him from growling “Ya still got a brother.” “So do you. Or do ya think Merle’s dead?” I ask before turning and walking back over to Glenn before looking over my shoulder at him and saying “Because I sure as fuck don’t think that. Ya’d think his own brother’d have more faith in him than me.” It was like you could hear a pin drop after that since everyone had stopped what they were doing to watch my confrontation with Daryl. And I had won, you’d think he’d learn by now.

Jim and Jacqui goes to pick up one of the bodies then when she asks “Are you bleeding?” “I just got some on me from the bodies.” He says as Glenn and I share a ‘This isn’t good.’ Look as Jim goes to pick up the body. Jacqui quickly says “That blood is fresh. Were you bit?” “No. I got scratched during the attack.” He says causing her to stand up and say “You got bit.” “I’m fine.” He says so she demands “Then show me.” He looks at her and stands up and whispers to her but she quickly yells “A walker got him. A walker bit Jim.” Backing away. Everyone is paying attention to Jim now, instead of Daryl, and is basically circling him as he says “I’m okay. I’m okay.” “Show it to us.” Daryl orders pointing at Jim walking forward and says again “Show it to us.” Jim starts panicking turns and grabs a shovel as Shane says “Easy, Jim.” And Daryl says “Grab him.” As T-Dog goes behind Jim. “Jim, put it down. Put it down.” Shane orders but T-Dog rushes forward and grabs Jim as he says “I’m okay. I’m okay.” Daryl rushes forward and pulls up Jim’s shirt revealing a bite as Jim continues saying he’s okay. Daryl drops the shirt and backs away and T-Dog lets go of Jim and backs away as well. Everyone stares at him as Jim starts breathing heavy. Daryl slowly picks up the pick-axe so I go over to Jim and stand next to him while glaring at Daryl, knowing what he wanted to do. ‘God he was so easy to read sometimes.’

****Daryl’s POV****

            I slowly pick up the pick-axe to kill Jim after we find out he got bit but Troy walks over to him, stands next to him, and glares at me. She’s been annoying me and pissing me off ever since she woke up as the first thing she does is go over to Andrea and the time bomb that used to be Amy, then she agrees with Lori, then she pushes me and gets in my face as Glenn yells at me, although I expected that she’d do that, then she accused me of thinking Merle was dead, but now she’s siding with Jim, who was going to turn. The rest of us huddle up as Troy leads Jim to the R.V. “I say we put a pick-axe in his head and the dead girl’s and be done with it.” I say causing Shane to quickly ask “Is that what you’d want if it were you?” “Yeah, and I’d thank you while you did it.” I answer so Dale says “I hate to say it, I never thought I would, but maybe Daryl’s right.” “Jim’s not a monster, Dale, or some rabid dog.” Rick says. “I’m not suggesting-“Dale starts but is cut off by Rick saying “He’s sick. A sick man. We start down that road, where do we draw the line?” “The line’s pretty clear. Zero tolerance for walkers, or them to be.” I say so Rick says “What if we can get him help? I heard the CDC was working on a cure.” “I heard that too. Heard a lot of things before the world went to hell.” Shane says causing Rick to say “What if the CDC is still up and running?” ‘Just great.’ I think looking at Troy as she’s now walking towards us. “Man, that is a stretch right there.” Shane says. “Why? If there’s any government left, any structure at all, they’d protect the CDC at all costs, wouldn’t they? I think it’s our best shot. Shelter, protection-” Rick says but is cut off by Shane saying “Okay, Rick, you want those things, all right? I do too, okay? Now if they exist, they’re at the army base. Fort Benning.” “That’s 100 miles in the opposite direction.” Troy says but Shane quickly says “That is right. But it’s away from the hot zone. Now listen to me if that place is operational, it’ll be heavily armed. We’d be safe there.” “The military were on the front lines of this thing. They got overrun. We’ve all seen that. The CDC is our best choice and Jim’s only chance.” Rick counters and I look at Jim before looking at Rick and say “You go looking for aspirin, do what you need to do.” Turning and going towards Jim I add “Someone need to have some balls to take care of this damn problem!” But before I can bring the axe down a knife, Troy’s knife, flies by my face and lodges itself into the handle just above my hands. That’s when Rick says “We don’t kill the living.” Pointing a gun at my head. “That’s funny coming from a man who just put a gun to my head.” I say looking at him. “We may disagree on some things, not on this. Let it go.” Shane says so I lower the axe saying “Fine.” Rick then goes over to Jim and says “Come with me.” “Where are you taking me?” he asks as they start to walk away “Somewhere safe.” Rick answers as they continue walking away as Troy walks over and says “Next time yer about to kill someone in front of the kids I won’t miss.” “So ya’d just kill me instead?” I growl at her causing her to scoff as she pulls her knife from the axe saying “Na, I’d make yer hands useless.” With that she walks off. ‘How can one person be so infuriating?’

****Troy’s POV****

            As I walk away from Daryl I hear him scoff but I ignore him and help with the rest of the bodies as he goes back to pick-axing heads. When he comes to Ed, Carol goes over and says “I’ll do it. He’s my husband.” He actually gives her the axe so she axes Ed’s head four times crying louder each time. Like she was getting the years of bent up anger out, which she probably was. I glance over at Andrea and see that Amy is starting to reanimate. She sits up and grabs the back of Andrea’s head as Rick and Shane start to walk over but Andrea shoots Amy in the head re-killing her. I look at Glenn and he nods so I go over to her and put a hand on her shoulder silently asking if she needs my help. She looks up at me and gratefulness floods her face seeing I wasn’t looking at her in pity before she nods. I nod back and go get one of the sheets for the bodies and some of the rope as she stays with Amy. We wrap her up and put her with the other bodies in the back of Daryl’s truck. Amy’s the last one so Daryl stars backing up the path with the rest of us walking up it.

We arrive when Daryl says “The Chinaman gets all emotional, says it’s not the thing to do, we just follow him along? These people need to know who the hell’s in charge here, what the rules are.” “There are no rules.” Rick says causing me to sigh and think ‘Really Rick? There are no rules? What about we don’t kill the living. That sounds like a rule to me.’ As Lori says “Well, that’s a problem. We haven’t had one minute to hold onto anything of our old selves. We need time to mourn and we need to bury our dead. It’s what people do.” We start putting the bodies in the graves then. When it comes to Amy, Andrea is adamant about only her and I putting her in the grave but Dale keeps trying to help us only for Andrea to say “I can do it. I can do it.” Apparently I don’t count as an outsider to her pain in her broken state like the others. Dale ends up helping put Amy’s feet in the grave as Andrea is working on getting out from under her head. When she does Dale and I offer her our hands, she takes them so we pull her out.

****Time skip****

            In the morning we’re loading up the cars to head to the CDC and Rick and Share are deciding who rides with who: Morales, Miranda, Eliza, and Louis in Morales’ car, Rick, Lori, Carl, Carol, and Sophia in Carol’s Jeep, Glenn, Dale, Jim, and Jacqui in the RV, T-Dog and Andrea in T-Dogs van, Daryl in his truck, Shane in his Jeep, with them unsure where to put me since the RV was full. I didn’t like the fact that Glenn would be in the same car as Jim without me but I knew he knew how to protect himself so I didn’t need to squeeze myself into it. I stand a little bit away from the group as Shane says “Those of you with CBs, we’re gonna be on channel 40. Let’s keep the chatter down, okay? Now you got a problem, don’t have a CB, can’t get a signal or anything at all, you’re gonna hit your horn one time. That’ll stop the caravan. Any questions?” That’s when Morales says “We’re, uh….we’re not going.” Everyone looks at the family in shock but Miranda says “We have family in Birmingham. We want to be with our people.” Shane being a dick says “You go on your own, you won’t have anyone to watch your back.” As I think ‘And you will? All you care about is yourself and Rick’s family but not Rick or anyone else for that matter.’ “We’ll take the chance. I got to do what’s best for my family.” Morales says as Rick asks “You sure?” “We talked about it. We’re sure.” Morales answers as Shane looks at Rick. “Alright.” Rick says looking at Shane and adds “Shane.” They bend down next to the bag of guns and ammo and go through it Shane saying “Yeah, all right. .357?” “Yeah.” Rick says say they stand up. They then walk over to Morales and his family. Rick gives him the gun while Shane gives him a box of ammo saying “The box is half full.”

Daryl scoffs and Lori goes over to the family as Miranda say “Thank you all…for everything.” Lori gives her a hug, Morales and Shane shake hands as Shane says “Good luck, man.” “Appreciate it.” Morales says. “Yeah.” Shane says as Lori kisses the top of the kids’ heads, as they say their goodbyes. Eliza and Sophia hug both of them crying when Eliza gives Sophia her doll. “Channel 40 if you change your minds. All right?” Rick says “Yeah.” Morales says before looking at me and adds “See you Troy.” I nod and say a quick “See ya.” He and his family go to their car as Shane asks Rick “What makes you think our odds are any better?” before adding “Come on. Let’s go. Let’s move out.” As everyone is going to the cars Shane says “Troy you could ride with me. I have room.” Not really wanting to be near Shane that long, as he kept giving me a weird look ever since I came back with Rick, Glenn, T-Dog, and Daryl, I shake my head and follow Daryl to his truck. “What are you doing?” He asks when I open the passenger side door so I counter “What it looks like.” He’s doesn’t say anything back and just sighs so we get in and we start to head out.

Luckily we ride in silence that was just silence and not really awkward. We did have a lot of practice ignoring each other so it was actually a little bit of normalcy we had left after the hectic few days. We had just passed a small town when the RV started smoking. We all pull over and get out to see what’s wrong. As Rick and Dale look at it Dale says “I told you we’d never get far on that hose. I said I needed the one from the cube van.” “Can you jury-rig it?” Rick asks so Dale answers “That’s all it’s been so far. It’s more duct tape than hose. And I’m out of duct tape.” “I see something up ahead. A gas station if we’re lucky.” Shane says looking at Rick. Just then Jacqui comes out of the R.V. and says “Y’all, Jim, it’s bad. I don’t think he can take anymore.” Before standing next to the R.V. so I go into the R.V. “How ya doing Jim?” I ask taking Jacqui’s place at his side so he looks at me and says “My bones are like glass…I don’t have long do I?” I sigh before shaking my head saying “Sorry but no.” Rick comes in then and asks what I just asked him so Jim says “This ride is killing me. Every little bump…my bones are like glass. Leave me here. I’m done. Just leave me. I want to be with my family.” “I don’t think you know what you’re asking…The fever…you’ve been delirious more often than not.” Rick says causing Jim to say “I know. Don’t you think I know? I’m clear now. In five minutes I may not be. I know what I’m asking. I want this. Leave me here. Now that’s on me. Okay? My decision. Not your failure.”

I follow Rick out of the R.V. and we do a huddle so Rick says “He told us to leave him here. It’s what he says he wants.” “And he’s lucid?” Carol asks so I nod as Rick says “He seems to be. I would say yes.” “Back in the camp when I said Daryl might be right and you shut me down, you misunderstood. I would never go along with callously killing a man. I was just gonna suggest that we ask Jim what he wants. And I think we have an answer. “Dale says so Shane says “We just leave him here? We take off? Man, I’m not sure I could live with that.” “It’s not your call, either one of you. “Lori says. Shane and Rick looks at each other and nod. They go in the R.V. and bring Jim out and lean him against a tree. We all slowly gather around Jim and he says “Hey, another damn tree.” And chuckles. “Hey, Jim…I mean, you know it doesn’t need to be this.” Shane says causing Jim to answer “No. It’s good. The breeze feels nice.” “Okay. All right.” Shane says stepping away from Jim. Jacqui is the first to go to him and says “Just close your eyes, sweetie. Don’t fight.” Kissing him on the cheek before walking away. Rick is next and asks “Jim, do you want this?” holding a gun. “No. You’ll need it. I’m okay. I’m okay.” Jim says so Rick walks away. Dale is next and he tells Jim “Thank for, uh, for fighting for us.” As he walks away the others but me and Daryl walk away as well. Jim nods and Daryl and I walk towards him. Daryl nods and walks away as I stand there. “Do me a favor?” Jim asks then so I kneel in front of him nodding so he asks “Will you kill me?” I rise my eyebrows at him so he says “I couldn’t ask anyone else…they couldn’t do it. You can…It’s not your fault.” “It sort of is.” I tell him causing him to shake his head painfully and say “No. It’s my decision…Please, do it, continue to protect the group, and open up to them…to Daryl.” “You’re delirious now.” I say gently but he says “No I’m not. Trust me, I know. What you two have…it’s something that only happens once. Embrace it.” “I really think you’re delirious now but I guess I can try.” I tell him pulling out my knife causing him to smile and close his eyes saying “Thank you, Troy.” “Goodbye Jim.” I say before making it look like I was hugging him to the outside eye as I quickly sever his brain stem. I make sure he’s leaning against the tree as I put my knife away before getting up and jogging back to the R.V. now as the others start going to their cars. I glance at Daryl and see that he’s watching me with an indescribable look on his face. Seeing he was caught he quickly looks away and gets in his truck. ‘What the hell was that?’ I wonder as we start moving again then.

****Time skip****

            We arrive at the CDC and there’s dead bodies everywhere. “Of fucking course.” I mutter as I glance around at the bodies of civilians and soldiers. We slowly start moving past them and I’m looking at every one waiting for one to get up. I had a very bad feeling right now. “All right, everybody. Keep moving. Go on. Stay quiet. Let’s go.” Shane whispers as we approach the building. Daryl and I are covering the back as we make our way through. “Keep moving. Stay together. Keep moving. Come on.” Rick says leading us so Shane says “Shh.” We get to the building and Rick rattles the door as I look around for a key pad I could attempt to hack. “Nothing?” Shane asks as Rick and him try to get the door open.  I see a camera so I stand under it looking at it trying to figure out if it was on as Shane pounds on the door. “There’s nobody here.” T-Dog says causing Rick to ask “Then why are these shutters down?” “Walkers!” Daryl yells and everyone turns around. Daryl shoots the soldier walker and yells “You led us into a graveyard!” walking towards Rick. “He made a call.” I defend causing Daryl to yell at me “It was the wrong damn call!” “Just shut up. You hear me? Shut up. Shut up! Rick, this is a dead end.” Shane tells us before we can get into another fight so Carol asks “Where are we gonna go?” Shane walking towards Rick then says “Do you hear me? No blame.” Pointing at him. “She’s right. We can’t be here, this close to the city after dark.” Lori says as I dispose of a walker getting too close. Rick looks back at the doors as Shane says “Fort Benning, Rick, still an option.” “On what? No food, no fuel. That’s 100 miles.” Andrea says so Glenn says “125. I checked the map.” “Forget Fort Benning. We need answers tonight, now.” Lori says angry. “We’ll, think of something.” Rick says trying to calm her down as Shane orders “All right, everybody back to the cars. Let’s go. Move.” But Rick stays where he was and says “The camera, it moved.” Causing Dale to tell him “You imagined it.” “It moved.” He says walking towards it so I follow him as Daryl yells “The walkers are gettin’ closer!” Rick bangs on the door as Lori yells “Rick, there’s nobody here!” “I know you’re in there. I know you can hear me.” Rick says at the camera as Shane yells “Get back to the cars now!” “Please, we’re desperate. Please help us. We have women, children, no food, hardly any gas left.” Rick pleads to the camera as Lori runs over to him and tries to get him to give up. “If you don’t let us in, you’re killing us! Please!” Rick yells as Shane grabs him and starts dragging him away saying “Come on, buddy, let’s go.” That’s when I see the camera move too so I point at it and yell “Come on!” as Rick keeps yelling “Please help us. You’re killing us! You’re killing us!” Shane pushes Rick forward and I feel someone grab me and start pulling me away just as the door opens.

 


	5. Chapter 4 – Trojan Horse

****Daryl’s POV****

            We get to the CDC but there’s dead bodies everywhere. We slowly start moving past them with Troy and I covering the back. “All right, everybody. Keep moving. Go on. Stay quiet. Let’s go.” Shane whispers as we approach the building so Rick says “Keep moving. Stay together. Keep moving. Come on.” leading us. “Shh.” Shane says. We get to the building and Rick rattles the door as Troy looks around. “Nothing?” Shane asks as Rick and him try to get the door open. Troy then looks at a camera while standing under it as Shane pounds on the door. “There’s nobody here.” T-Dog says causing me to think ‘No shit.’ as Rick asks “Then why are these shutters down?” “Walkers!” I yell seeing some of the bodies start to get up and everyone turns around. I shoot a soldier walker and yell “You led us into a graveyard!” walking towards Rick causing Troy to defend “He made a call.” “It was the wrong damn call!” I yell at her causing Shane tell us “Just shut up. You hear me? Shut up. Shut up!” Before adding “Rick, this is a dead end.” “Where are we gonna go?” Carol asks as Shane walks towards Rick saying “Do you hear me? No blame.” Pointing at him. “She’s right. We can’t be here, this close to the city after dark.” Lori says as Troy re-kills a walker that was getting too close. Rick looks back at the doors as Shane says “Fort Benning, Rick, still an option.” “On what? No food, no fuel. That’s 100 miles.” Andrea says so Glenn says “125. I checked the map.” “Forget Fort Benning. We need answers tonight, now.” Lori says angry. “We’ll, think of something.” Rick says trying to calm her down as Shane orders “All right, everybody back to the cars. Let’s go. Move.” But Rick stays where he was and say “The camera, it moved.” Causing Dale to tell him “You imagined it.” “It moved.” He says walking towards it and Troy follows him as I inform “The walkers are gettin’ closer!” Rick bangs on the door as Lori yells “Rick, there’s nobody here!” “I know you’re in there. I know you can hear me.” Rick says at the camera as Shane yells “Get back to the cars now!” “Please, we’re desperate. Please help us. We have women, children, no food, hardly any gas left.” Rick pleads to the camera as Lori runs over to him and tries to get him to give up and I move over to grab Troy since the last thing I need is her death being on my hands. “If you don’t let us in, you’re killing us! Please!” Rick yells as Shane grabs him and starts dragging him away saying “Come on, buddy, let’s go.” That’s when Troy points and yells at the camera “Come on!” as Rick keeps yelling “Please help us. You’re killing us! You’re killing us!” Shane pushes Rick forward and I grab Troy and start pulling her away just as the door opens.

            We stand there for a few seconds just staring at it till Troy gets out of my hold and Shane tells us “Daryl, Troy, you cover the back.” as we start to move into the building. “Hello?” Rick calls as Shane says “Close those doors. Watch for walkers.” “Hello?” Rick calls again when a gun cocks in front of us we aim our weapons in that direction and there is a guy there who asks “Anybody infected?” “One of our group was. He didn’t make it.” Rick says so the guy comes down the stairs asking “Why are you here? What do you want?” “A chance.” Rick says so as he walks forward the guy states “That’s asking an awful lot these days.” “I know.” Rick says and the guy looks at all of us and says “You all submit to a blood test. That’s the price of admission.” “We can do that.” Rick says so the guy lowers his gun and says “You got stuff to bring in, you do it now. Once this door closes, it stays closed.”  Rick, Glenn, Shane, and I then run and get the bags as Troy covers us. T-Dog and Dale close the doors behind us and the guy slides a card in a key pad as the light turned green he says “Vi, seal the main entrance. Kill the power up here.” The door closes and Rick introduces himself and the guy looks at him and says “Dr. Edward Jenner.” We all pile in an elevator so I ask “Doctors always go around packing heat like that?” “There were plenty left lying around. I familiarized myself.” Jenner says looking around at the others before adding “But you look harmless enough. Except you. I’ll have to keep my eye on you.” Looking at Carl who smiles. The elevator stops and we follow Jenner down a hallway, Troy and I in the back, we always seemed to end up together even though we basically only had arguments if we talked to each other. Carol then asks “Are we underground?” “Are you claustrophobic?” Jenner asks so she answers “A little.” “Try not to think about it.” He says picking up his pace.

            As we walk into a big room Jenner says “Vi, bring up the lights in the big room.” The lights come on so he adds “Welcome to zone 5.” “Where is everybody? The other doctors, the staff?” Rick asks so Jenner stops and turns to us and says “I’m it. It’s just me here.” “What about that person you were speaking with? Vi?” Lori asks and at this Troy sighs as Jenner says “Vi, say hello to our guests. Tell them…welcome.” A computer voice then says “Hello, guests. Welcome.” “I’m all that’s left.” Jenner says looking at Rick before adding “I’m sorry.”

****Troy’s POV****

            “What’s the point? If we were infected, we’d all be running a fever.” Andrea asks when she gets her blood drawn so Jenner says “I’ve already broken every rule in the book by letting you all in here.” Before looking away adding “All done.” Andrea gets up then but she pauses so Jenner asks “Are you okay?” She nods as Jacqui informs him “She hasn’t eaten in days. None of us have.” Jenner looks shocked and says “Follow me.” He then leads us all into a kitchen area.

****Time skip****

            Everyone was laughing as we ate dinner and drank some wine. Daryl is drinking straight from a bottle himself at least Glenn and I were sharing, ‘He’s gonna get a major hangover.’ I think watching Daryl take another big drink. “You know in Italy, children have a little bit of wine with dinner.” Dale says handing Lori her now filled glass and adds “And in France.” “Well, when Carl is in Italy or France, he can have some them.” She says but Rick says “What’s it gonna hurt? Come on. Come on.” Lori gives in and Dale gives Carl some saying “There you are, young lad.” Carl takes a sip and says “Eww.” And the others laugh as Lori says “That’s my boy.” And pours the wine in her glass as Shane says “Well, just stick to soda pop there, bud.” “Not you, Glenn. Or you Troy.” Daryl say looking at Glenn and I who are sitting on the counter. “What?” Glenn asks so Daryl says “Keep drinking, little guy and gal. I want to see how red your face’s can get.” “How ‘bout I shove my fist in yer face? Then we’ll see who has a red face.” I say sending him a glare causing Glenn to say “Ohhh, burn.” Which in turn caused the group to start laughing and Rick looks at Jenner who’s just watching us silently. Rick clinks his glass standing up and says “It seems to me we haven’t thanked our host properly.” “He is more than just our host.” T-Dog says raising his glass so Dale raises his glass and says “Hear! Hear!” and Daryl says “Here’s to you, doc. Booyah!” The guys say “Booyah!” as well, as Rick says to Jenner “Thank you. Thank you, doctor.” “So when are you gonna tell us what the hell happened here, doc?” Shane asks looking at Jenner and adds “All the-the other doctors that were supposed to be figuring out what happened, where are they?” I shake my head as Rick says “We’re celebrating, Shane. Don’t need to do this now.” Sitting back down. “Whoa, wait a second. This is why we’re here, right? This was your move, supposed to find all the answers. Instead we….we found him. Found one man. Why?” Shane says pointing at Jenner who says “Well, when things got bad, a lot of people just left, went off to be with their families. And then things got worse, when the military cordon got overrun, the rest bolted.” “Every last one?” Shane asks not reading the underline point Jenner made of ‘they quit’. “No, many couldn’t face walking out the door. They…opted out. There was a rash of suicides. That was a bad time.” Jenner says. “You didn’t leave. Why?” Andrea asked. “I just kept working, hoping to do some good...” Jenner says tailing off. “Well fuck." I mutter snatching the bottle from Glenn and taking a big drink so Glenn looks at Shane and says “Dude, you are such a buzzkill, man.” We finished eating and Jenner lead us to the rooms saying “Most of the facility is powered down, including housing, so you’ll have to make do here. The couches are comfortable, but there are cots in storage if you like. There’s a rec room down the hall that you kids might enjoy. Just don’t plug in the video games, okay? Or anything that draws power. The same applies, if you shower go easy on the hot water.” Before walking away. Glenn turns and asks “Hot water?” “That’s what the man said.” T-Dog replies and they both laugh before we all basically run to a room.

            “Sweet Jesus.” I breathe out when the hot water touches my scared skin. I can faintly hear the others laughing through the vent in the ceiling causing me to chuckle as well. I scrub off what seems like a layer of grime from my skin before tackling the tangled mass that is my hair. I really didn’t take the time to take care of it while we were at the quarry and just let it be. I didn’t care what I looked like, still don’t. Even before the world went to shit I didn’t, much to Glenn’s Mother and Sisters’ dismay. After I finish I quickly get dressed in some fresh clothes and run my hands through my wet hair to finish untangling it. “I should probably cut this.” I mutter looking at a strand of my long hair that was now back to its original color, a dirty blonde instead of the dark brown it was.

            I’m digging through my bag for a pair of scissors when there’s a knock at my door. “Come in.” I say so I hear the door open but I don’t bother looking up. Suddenly I’m pushed to the ground with an obviously drunk Shane on top of me, his legs pinning my arms down at my sides. “What-“ I start to yell but he cuts me off by placing a hand over my mouth saying “Now that Merle’s gone and Rick’s back you’ll have to do.” I knee him where it hurts but it just pisses him off causing him to move his hand to cover my nose as well as other hand travels down to the hem of my pants. Involuntary fear floods me as my lungs burn for air and I struggle against him since he’s a lot stronger than the asshat back in the city. I notice he already has three scratches on his neck, probably from Lori, so I know he won’t stop until he gets what he wants or I get way. I have to resort to biting his hand so I could try and escape. “You bitch.” He growls ripping his now bleeding hand away as I scramble out from under him. I kick him over before I run out of the room and into the first room I come to.

****Daryl’s POV****

            “What’re you-” I start to yell when Troy runs into my room and slams the door behind her but she cuts me off as she whips around, rushes over, puts a hand over my mouth, and harshly whispers “I’m not here.” Before running into the bathroom. She had just shut the door when Shane barges in, quickly covers his rage, hides one of his hands, and feigns innocence as he asks “Have you seen Troy?” “Why would’ve I seen her? Ya should ask Glenn.” I spit out causing him to say “Right…” trailing off as he leaves. After a few minutes of him not coming back I say “He’s gone.” She slowly opens the door then and glances around so I ask “What’d ya do?” even though I have a pretty good idea of what happened. “Defended myself.” She growls glaring at me so I raise my hands in surrender and ask “Ya do that to his neck?” “Na that was probably Lori. I bit his hand.” She sighs out leaning against the door so I stand and say “Ya can take the couch.” “No. I’ll just go to Glenn’s room.” She says and I couldn’t stop myself from blurting out “He’ll look for ya there. Yer staying.” I didn’t like the girl but that didn’t mean I’d let her get raped and probably beat half to death by Shane. “Then I’ll take the floor.” She states going over to the opposite side of the room and sits down. “Fine.” “Fine.”

****Troy’s POV****

            I wake up on the floor and mentally swear at myself for being prideful. My joints pop as I stretch and look over at a still sleeping Daryl. I get up and quietly make my way over to him. “Thanks.” I whisper before stopping myself from reaching out to touch him causing me to mutter “What am I doing?” shaking my head of the thought. I then head out and I’m careful not to be too loud when I shut the door behind me. As luck would have it I come face to face with Glenn who’s eyes are wide. “I’ll explain later.” I tell him when he opens his mouth to say something before I go back to my room. I scoff seeing the small blood stain on the carpet as I change back into jeans. I then head to the kitchen area and sit next to Glenn who’s head is on the table. He groans when T-Dog starts putting breakfast things on the table causing him to laugh. “What’s so funny?” Carl asks as he, Lori, Dale, and Andrea come in. “Glenn has a hangover. Like your dad is sure to have when he wakes up.” Lori says as they sit down at the table. Jenner comes in and puts a bottle of aspirin on the table and says “Though you guys would need this. Take them, I’ll know if you didn’t.” before walking back out of the room. Rick then comes in saying “Morning.” I sigh as I take a bite out of the bacon. “Are you hungover? Mom said you’d be.” Carl asks as Jacqui, Carol, and Sophia come in. “Mom is right.” Rick says sitting down so Lori says “Mom has that annoying habit.” Jacqui is rubbing Glenn’s shoulders then as T-Dog says “Eggs. Powdered, but-but I do ‘em good.” Loudly causing Glenn to groan so T-Dog continues “I bet you can’t tell. Protein helps the hangover.” Putting the eggs on everyone’s plates. “Where’d all this come from?” Rick asks so Lori says “Jenner.” “Could you help me, please?” Rick asks handing her the bottle so she says “He thought we could use it. Some of us at least.” Looking at Glenn so I chuckle as Glenn says “Don’t ever ever ever let me drink again.” Just as Shane comes in saying “Hey.” “Hey.” Rick says looking at him before adding “Feel as bad as I do?” “Worse.” Shane says as T-Dog asks him “The hell happened to you? Your neck and hand?” causing me to look at Shane as he sat down. “I must have done it in my sleep.” He says causing me to chuckle as Rick says “Never seen you do that before.” “Me neither. Not like me at all.” Shane says looking at Lori who looks away so he looks at me and I glare at and mentally tell him ‘I will kill you. If you try again.’ As Jenner comes in again saying “Morning.” “Hey, doc.” Everyone greets before Dale starts to say “Doctor, I don’t mean to slam you with questions first thing-““But you will anyway.” Jenner says cutting him off as Daryl walks in. “We didn’t come here for the eggs.” Andrea says causing Jenner to look at everyone before settling on me. ‘What the fuck?’ I think as he says “Come with me.”

We follow him into the big room and he hits a button on the computer and says “Give me playback of TS-19.” “Playback of TS-19” Vi says starting to load the playback as Jenner says “Few people ever got a chance to see this. Very few.” My eyes go wide seeing it’s a similar video to the one I saw at the start of this. “Is that a brain?” Carl asks so I nod as Jenner says “An extraordinary one. Not that it matters in the end. Take us in for EIV.” Sadness laced his words so I look at him and determine he must have known the person personally. “Enhanced internal view.” Vi says as everyone is staring at the video in interest not knowing what’s happening. “What are those lights?” Shane asks so Jenner explains “It’s a person’s life-experiences, memories. It’s everything. Somewhere in all that organic wiring, all those ripples of light, is you-the thing that makes you unique. And human” looking at them. “You don’t make sense ever?” Daryl asks. “Those are synapses, electric impulses in the brain that carry all the messages. They determine everything a person says does or thinks from the moment of birth to the moment of death.” I explain looking back at the playback. “Death? That’s what this is, a vigil?” Rick asks so I nod as Jenner says, being technical, “Yes. Or rather the playback of the vigil.” “This person died? Who?” Andrea asks so Jenner says “Test Subject 19. Someone who was bitten and infected…and volunteered to have us record the process. Vi, scan forward to the first event.” “Scanning to first event.” Vi says. Seeing the virus Glenn asks “What is that?” “It invades the brain like meningitis. The adrenal glands hemorrhage, the brain goes into shutdown, then the major organs, and then death. Everything you ever were or ever will be is gone.” I explain so Jenner says “That’s right.” causing Sophia to ask “Is that what happened to Jim?” “Yes.” Carol tells her. Andrea starts crying and Lori tells Jenner “She lost somebody two days ago. Her sister.” I watch him then as he walks closer to Andrea and says “I lost somebody too. I know how devastating it is.” Looking back at the screen he adds “Scan to the second event.” “Scanning to second event.” Vi says. “The resurrection times vary wildly. We had reports of it happening in as little as three minutes. The longest we heard of was eight hours. In the case of this patient, it was two hours, one minute…seven seconds.” Seeing the red lights Lori asks “It restarts the brain?” I shake my head and say “No, just the brain stem. Basically, it gets them up and moving.” “But they’re not alive?” Rick asks. “You tell me.” Jenner tells Rick pointing to the screen, Rick shakes his head and says “It’s nothing like before. Most of that brain is dark.” “Dark, lifeless, dead. The frontal lobe, the neocortex, the human part-that doesn’t come back. The you part. Just a shell driven by mindless instinct.” I say before a bullet goes through the brain and Carol asks “God. What was that?” “He shot his patient in the head. Didn’t you?” Andrea says. “Vi, power down the main screen and the workstations.” Jenner says ignoring her question. “Powering down main screen and workstations” Vi says as Jenner goes to his workstation. “You have no idea what it is, do you?” Andrea asks. “It could be microbial, viral, parasitic, fungal.” Jenner starts when Jacqui asks “Or the wrath of God?” “There is that.” Jenner says looking at me as I shake my head thinking ‘I don’t believe in any type of God, but if there was one they could have started this.’ “Somebody must know something. Somebody somewhere” Andrea says. “There are others, right? Other facilities?” Carol asks and I sigh as Jenner says “There may be some. People like me.” “But you don’t know? How could you not know?” Rick asks being stupid. “Everything went down. Communications, directives- all of it. We’ve been in the dark for almost a month.” Jenner says. “So it’s not just here. There’s nothing left anywhere? Nothing? That’s what you’re really saying, right?” Andrea asks he doesn’t answer her so I say “At the start of this…I found thousands of reports all over the world.”  She lets out a breath as Jacqui says “Jesus.” Before Daryl says “Man, I’m gonna get shit-faced drunk again.” Leaning on one of the workstations putting his head in his hands. “Dr. Jenner, I know this has been taxing for you and I hate to ask one more question, but...that clock-it’s counting down. What happens at zero?” Dale asks looking at Jenner who says “The basement generators-they run out of fuel.” “And then?” Rick asks looking at me, as Jenner walks away. “Oh shit.” I mutter before face palming so Rick asks “Vi, what happens when the power runs out?” “When the power runs out, facility-wide decontamination will occur.” Vi says causing me to sigh heavily I go with Rick, Shane, Glenn, and T-Dog to check the basement generators.

“Decontamination-what does that mean?” Glenn asks so I say “Ya don’t want to know.” “I don’t like the way Jenner clammed up. The way he just wandered off like that.” Shane says then basically ignoring me. “What’s wrong with him? Seriously, man, is he nuts, medicated or what?” T-Dog asks as I look at the map on the wall. “In there.” I say heading towards the door. Shane turns the lights on when we walk in so Rick tells Me, Glenn, and T-Dog to check one why as Shane and him check another. All we find is empty barrels until the lights go out and Vi says “Emergency lighting on.” “What the hell is this?” Shane asks as we come running into the side they were on. “Hey, you guys kill the lights?” Glenn asks. “Nah, it just went out.” Shane says as Rick asks “Anything?” “Yeah, a lot of dead generators and more empty fuel drums than I can count.” T-Dog says this causes Shane to look at Rick and say “It can’t be down to just that one.”

****Glenn’s POV****

            “Jenner, what’s happening?” Rick asks when we run into the big room. “The system is dropping all the nonessential uses of power. It’s designed to keep the computers running to the last possible second. That started as we approached the half-hour mark. Right on schedule.” Jenner says stopping, taking a big drink of the bottle of alcohol before handing it to Daryl who snatches it. “It was the French.” Jenner then says. “What?” Andrea asks so Jenner says “They were the last ones to hold out as far as I know. While our people were bolting out the doors and committing suicide in the hallways, they stayed in the labs till the end. They thought they were close to a solution.” ‘So much for that.’ I think as Jacqui asks “What happened?” Jenner looks at her and says “The same thing that’s happening here. No power grid. Ran out of juice. The world runs on fossil fuel. I mean, how stupid is that?” “Let me tell you-“Shane starts but Rick says “To hell with it. I don’t care. Lori, grab our things. Everybody, get your stuff. We’re getting out of here now!” as Jenner starts walking to a workstation. Troy gives me a ‘I can fix this look.’ As the others start to leave when an alarm starts going off.  “30 minutes to decontamination.” Vi says after everyone asks “What’s that?” I see Troy is basically glaring at Jenner now as Daryl yells “Doc, what’s going on here, damn it?” “Everybody, y’all heard Rick. Get your stuff and let’s go! Go now! Go!” Shane yells just as the door closes. “You fuck!” Troy yells at Jenner going for the key pad as I say “Did you just lock us in? He just locked us in!” “Let me go!” Troy yells as Jenner grabs her, holds down her arms, and turns to the workstation saying “We’ve hit the 30-minute window. I am recording.” “You son of a bitch.” Daryl yells running at Jenner and Troy. “Shane!” Rick yells as Daryl yells “You locked us in here!” grabbing Jenner’s chair as Shane pulls him back says “No no no no! Don’t!” T-Dog comes running yelling “Wait, no! No, don’t do it.” Helping Shane with Daryl. Rick walking towards the group says “Hey, Jenner, open that door now and let Troy go.” “There’s no point. Everything topside is locked down. The emergency exits are sealed.” Jenner says as Troy struggles against him so Dale says “Well open the damn things.” “That’s not something I control. The computers do. I told you once that front door closed, it wouldn’t open again. You heard me say that.” Jenner says so Troy yells “I can stop it! Let me go!” as everyone looks at them shocked before he adds “It’s better this way.” “What is? What happens in 28 minutes?” Rick asks Jenner doesn’t say anything so Shane says “Come on!” as Rick asks again “What happens in 28 minutes?!” Jenner stands up pushing Troy at Daryl yelling “Do you know what this place is?! We protected the public from very nasty stuff! Weaponized smallpox! Ebola stains that could wipe out half the country! Stuff you don’t want getting out! Ever!” clearly losing it. Troy rips the flash drive from around her neck and runs to one of the other computers as everyone stares at Jenner as he sits down and says “In the event of a catastrophic power failure- in a terrorist attack for example-HIT’s are deployed to prevent any organisms from getting out.” “Not good. That is really not good.” Troy mutters as numbers start scrolling rapidly on the screen in front of her after she plugged in the flash drive as Rick asks “HIT’s?” “Vi define.” Jenner says so Vi says “HIT’s are high-impulse thermobaric fuel-air explosives consist of a two-stage aerosol ignition that produces a blast wave of significantly greater power and duration than any other known explosive except nuclear. The vacuum-pressure effect ignites the oxygen at between 5000 degrees and 6000 degrees and is useful when the greatest loss of life and damage to structure is desired.” Everyone but Troy look at Jenner shocked so she states “They set the fucking air on fire.” causing Jenner to add, simply, “No pain. And end to sorrow, grief…regret……Everything.”

Daryl then throws the bottle of alcohol at the door and yells “Open the damn door!” as Shane runs at the door with a fire axe yelling “Out of my way!” and starts hitting it. “Daryl!” T-Dog yells throwing him another axe. They’re both hitting the door as Jenner looks at Troy and says “You should’ve left well enough alone. It would’ve been so much easier.” Troy scoffs as Lori asks “Easier for who?” “All of you. You know what’s out there-a short, brutal life and an agonizing death. Your-Your sister-what was her name?” Jenner says looking at Andrea who says “Amy.” “Amy. You know what this does. You’ve seen it. Is that really what you want for your wife and son?” Jenner says looking at Rick who says “I. Don’t. Want. This.” “Can’t make a dent.” Shane says so Troy says “Those doors are designed to withstand a rocket launcher, you idiot.” “Well, his head ain’t!” Daryl yells trying to swing the axe at Jenner. Rick and Dale stop him as Rick yells “Daryl! Daryl! Just back up! Just back up! You could end up hitting Troy!” Daryl drops the axe as Jenner stands up and says to Troy "You do want this. It’s the perfect end to the Trojan Horse.” then looking at Rick adds “You want this too. Last night you said you knew it was just a matter of time before everybody you loved was dead.” “Just shut the fuck up!” Troy yells as Shane asks Rick “What? You really said that? After all your big talk?” “I had to keep hope alive, didn’t I?” Rick asks so Jenner counters “There is no hope. There never was.” “There’s always hope. Maybe it won’t be you, maybe not here, but somebody somewhere.” Rick counters before Andrea asks “What part of everything is gone do you not understand?” “Listen to your friend. She gets it. This is what takes us down. This is our extinction event.” Jenner says causing Carol to cry “This isn’t right. You can’t just keep us here.” “One tiny moment, a millisecond. No pain.” Jenner says but Carol says “My daughter doesn’t deserve to die like this.” “Wouldn’t it be kinder, more compassionate to just hold your loved ones and wait for the clock to run down?” Jenner asks just as a gun cocks and Rick yells “Shane, no!” “Out of the way, Rick! Stay out of my way! Open that door or I’m gonna blow your head off. Do you hear me?!” Shane yells as the numbers scrolling on Troy’s screen start to slow. “Brother, brother, this is not the way you do this. We will never get out of here.” Rick says so Lori adds “Shane, you listen to him.” “It’s too late.” Shane says so Rick starts “He dies, we all-“as Shane yells he continues “We all die! Shane!” Daryl and I pull Troy back just as Shane starts shooting the computers. Rick takes him down but the computer Troy was doing the hack from was toast causing her to yell at Shane “Ya fucking moron I was almost done! There’s not enough time to start another hack!” as Rick asks Shane “Are you done now? Are you done?” “Yeah, I guess we all are.” Shane says.

            Rick looks at everyone and hands T-Dog the gun before saying “I think you’re lying.” “What?” Jenner asks. “You’re lying about no hope. If that were true, you’d have bolted with the rest or taken the easy way out. You didn’t. You chose the hard path. Why?” Rick says so Jenner says “It doesn’t matter.” “It does matter. It always matters. You stayed when others ran. Why?” Rick says. “Not because I wanted to. I made a promise…to her. My wife.” Jenner says pointing at the screen. “Test subject 19 was your wife?” Lori asks. “She begged me to keep going as long as I could. How could I say no?” Jenner says as Daryl starts hitting the door again with an axe then adding “She was dying. It should’ve been me on that table. I wouldn’t have mattered to anybody. She was a loss to the world. Hell, she ran this place. I just worked here. In our field, people like her, is Einstein. Me? I’m just….Edwin Jenner. She could’ve done something about this. Not me.” “Your wife didn’t have a choice. You do. That’s-that’s all we want, a choice, a chance.” Rick says so Lori pleads “Let us keep trying as long as we can.” Jenner looks at her before saying “I told you topside’s locked down. I can’t open those.” And going over to the key pad and opening the door.  “Come on!” Daryl yells as Jenner says “Troy.” “Go I’ll meet up.” She says pushing me towards the door before turning to glare at Jenner as the others yell their versions of come on.

****Troy’s POV****

            Everyone but me, Jacqui, Andrea, Dale, and Jenner ran out of the room. Jenner slowly turns to me and says “I don’t believe there’s a chance, but here.” And tosses me another flash drive. I chuckle and go over to the station with mine and grab it before saying “Goodbye Jenner.” And rushing out of the room, detouring to get my bag. I arrive at the top floor as T-Dog yells "Daryl, look out!" and starts hitting the window with a chair. It doesn't work so Shane says "Dog, get down! Get down!" before shooting the glass with a shotgun. "The glass won't break?!" Sophia asks scared and I hear Carol whisper “The grenade.” before digging in the bag looking at Rick saying "Rick, I might have something that can help." "Carol, I don’t think a nail file’s gonna do it." Shane says. She shakes her head as she pulls out the grenade and says "Your first morning at camp, when I washed your uniform I found this in your pocket." Rick goes to grab it but I do and run to the window yelling “Time to blow shit up!” as Daryl and Glenn yell "Troy no!" I ignore them and look at Rick as I pull the pin and get ready to release is so he yells "Everybody get down!" I drop it and sprint back towards the group Daryl grabs me and pulls me under him as it explodes. "Come on let’s go!" He yells pulling me up with him and start running out the now broken window.

****Daryl’s POV****

            When the door opens I yell “Come on!” to the rest of the group as Jenner says “Troy.” “Go I’ll meet up.” She says pushing Glenn towards the door before turning to glare at Jenner as the others yell their versions of come on. ‘She’s gonna get herself killed.’ I think but follow the others, minus her, Jacqui, Andrea, and Dale to the top floor. “Get them doors open!” Glenn yells running to the doors with T-Dog trying to get them open as Shane yells “Daryl!” and I throw him one of the axes and we start hitting the window as Glenn yells “It doesn’t work!”  “Come on! Come on!” I yell at the window as Carol says “Stay close, sweetheart.” Then T-Dog yells "Daryl, look out!" I get out of the way and he starts hitting the window with a chair and I let out a breath I didn’t know I was holding when I saw Troy standing next to Carol. It doesn't work so Shane says "Dog, get down! Get down!" before shooting the glass with a shotgun after T-Dog moves. "The glass won't break?!" Sophia asks scared causing Carol to mutter something nods before digging in her bag looking at Rick saying "Rick, I might have something that can help." "Carol, I don’t think a nail file’s gonna do it." Shane says. She shakes her head as she pulls out a grenade and says "Your first morning at camp, when I washed your uniform I found this in your pocket." Rick goes to grab it but Troy does and runs to the window yelling “Time to blow shit up!” as I can’t stop myself from yelling "Troy no!" along with Glenn. She ignores us and looks at Rick as she pulls the pin and get ready to release is so he yells "Everybody get down!" She then drops it and sprints towards the group so I grab her and pull her under me as it explodes. "Come on let’s go!" I yell at her pulling her up with me and start running out the now broken window. Rick and Shane shoot the walkers and I chop off their heads with the axes as we run to the cars. When Troy and I get to my truck Lori yells “Dale, get down! Down!” as the R.V.’s horn honks so I quickly push her in and cover her as I close the car door and the building explodes. We’re both breathing heavy and I quickly get off her realizing the position we were in and get into the driver’s seat as she sits up. She watches Dale and Andrea get into the R.V. as I look at her thinking ‘What’s wrong with me?’  And start the truck. The caravan then starts moving back towards Fort Benning.

 


	6. Chapter 5-Shot

****Troy’s POV****

A few miles out of the city we were running really low on gas so we stopped and condensed our vehicles to the R.V., Carol's Jeep, and Daryl's Motorcycle. I'm helping siphon the gas from the vehicles we're not going to use anymore when Dale comes over to us and asks me, T-Dog, and Shane "Where are you three riding? Rick, Lori, and Carl are still riding with Carol and Sophia. So all three of you are riding in the R.V. or one of you ride with Daryl and the rest in the R.V." Just then Glenn says "Troy should ride with Daryl." “What?” I ask looking at Glenn confused as Daryl says "That's fine." I then look at him and ask again “What?” so he adds "You don't take up that much room." I frown and state “I don’t know if that was an insult or not.” and look at Dale hoping for some help but all he does is smile at me before going back to the R.V. 'They are up to something.' I think as I look at Glenn who smirks at me with a look of ‘You still haven’t told me what happened.’ "Troy." Daryl then says before walking over to his bike so I sigh and follow him as T-Dog and Shane go over to the R.V. with the gas cans. As he gets on the bike he says "Just get on and hold on to me when we start moving." “I’ve ridden a motorcycle before.” I sigh out and get on behind him as he starts the bike. He starts heading to the front of the caravan and I wrap my arms around his waist lightly. We then resume heading out to Fort Benning.

****Time Skip****

Up ahead there's a pile up of cars so I point to it and Daryl says "I see it. Hold on, I'm gonna see if there's a way through." Over the motorcycle. So I hold onto him tighter, ignoring how it caused a warm and safe feeling to show up, as he speeds up and navigates through the pile up finding a path for the R.V. and turning around heading back towards them as they stopped. We pull up next to the R.V. and Dale asks "See a way through?" We nod and I point ahead of them as Daryl gestures with his head that way before going around the R.V. and back in front of it leading it. We slowly make our way through the cars when all of a sudden the R.V. starts smoking. I tap Daryl on the shoulder so he stops and parks the bike. We get off and make our way over to the group as Dale says "Just a small matter of being stuck in the middle of nowhere with no hope of-"before Daryl starts going through one of the cars. Dale then says "Okay, that was dumb." "If you can't find a radiator hose here..." Shane says trailing off as Daryl says "There's a whole bunch of stuff we can find." "I can siphon more fuel from these cars for a start." T-Dog says. "Maybe some water." Carol says and Glenn adds "Or food." But Lori says "This is a graveyard." We all look at her so she adds "I don't know how I feel about this." But Daryl goes back to going through the car as T-Dog says "All right, all right, here we go." And Shane says "Come on, y'all. Just look around, gather what you can." So we all start to go around and search the cars. I go to the cars a little bit farther back from the group and start looking through them, looking for anything useful. I randomly look up and see a herd of walkers heading straight towards us. “Oh shit.” I say before calling “Guys we got company!” as I run back to the kids passing Rick causing him to follow me. “Lori, under the cars. Carl, Sophia, get down now.” He says so I go under a car next to me as they do. Sophia is under the car directly next to me so when she looks at me I put my finger to my lips and she nods. The walkers start walking by so I motion for her to stay looking at me. She nods and makes eye contact with me and I with her.

The walkers die down causing her to start making her way from under the car towards me. I shake my head but a walker notices her as she screams and it crawls under the car to get her so I quickly roll out from under my car and pull her to me then roll us under my car. That’s when a pair of walkers come from the other side of my car. I quickly roll us out, pick her up, and start making my way to the woods were we can hide but I'm slow on the hill and the walkers don't have to worry about dropping someone. I get to the bottom of the hill and start running into the woods as Rick follows us from behind the walkers. I'm making a good sized gap between us and the walkers just then Rick comes up from my right and a group of five walkers come from the left so I give Sophia to him yell "Take her now!" as I pull my hunting knife from my pocket cursing myself that I left my bow back at the R.V. My guns would be faster but then the herd would hear and come back so they weren’t an option. He takes off in the direction he came from with her but I can tell he's already winded and two of the original three walkers go after them. “Hey fuckers!” I yell in frustration trying to get them to turn their attention to me but they see Rick and Sophia as an easy target. I then have to quickly jump back as one of the now six walkers reaches for me, stab it in the back of the head and quickly kick the walker back into two others and take down one still standing with my hunting knife. But I notice three more come from behind them so I start going the way I was originally going while making as much noise as possible so they follow me and don't go in Rick's and Sophia's direction. I only jog so they keep their interest till I'm sure I'm far enough away and quickly veer left, start sprinting, and hide behind a tree. They start passing me and when it's the last one I quickly come out and stab it in the back of the neck severing the brain stem making very little noise. Then I pick up a rock and throw it to the right of the group of them. Only four of them head that way and the other three stopped, so I line up the shot and throw my knife into the head of one of the ones who stopped. As it starts falling I rush forward, rip the knife from its head, drive it into the head of another, and kick the third away causing the four to turn back to me. I smash my foot into the fallen one’s head as they approach. I kick one into two and dispose of the fourth before jumping back quickly as they stand. I run towards and around them then, severing the closest one’s brain stem as I go. They reach for me so I jump back again before running towards them again but slide under them causing them to fall as I take out their legs with my arms. I stand quickly and throw the knife at one's head and jump on the other and start smashing its face into a rock repeatedly till the skull breaks.

I'm panting and don't notice the arrival of another walker and get pushed to the ground by it. I flip it backwards off me but it has a good grip on my sleeves and takes me with it and down the hill. Luckily I land on it so I stand up ripping its arms from mine as I start kicking its face in. When it's re-dead I look were I've fallen and see there's no way for me to get back up as the sides are too step and there is no roots or rocks in them for me to grab on to. “Just great.” I mutter as I frown, sit down exhausted, and hope Daryl can track where I went as I start to throw small rocks over the hill bored and keeping myself from passing out.

****Daryl's POV****

"What happened?" I ask as T-Dog and I make our way to the group that where looking towards the woods. Just then Rick comes out of the woods and asks "They're not back yet?!" It's then that I don't notice Sophia or Troy in the group and I’m confused at tightness in my chest because of it as Carol yells "Where are they?!" Lori tries to calm her down as Rick says "We have to find them." Before turning and going back into the woods with Glenn, Shane, and I following him. He leads us a spot with two dead walkers and says "This is where Troy gave me Sophia and told me to take her when a group of walkers came from that direction." He points and turns around and points in the opposite direction and adds "I took off with Sophia in that direction as Troy went that way drawing the walkers after her after killing these two." Pointing in the direction she went. "Sophia first. Troy knows how to survive out here, Sophia doesn't." Glenn says but is looking in the direction Troy went, I didn't like it very much either especially knowing she was against a group of walkers but agreed that even without it she had a better chance than Sophia so Rick leads us to a river and I ask "Sure this is the spot?" "I left Sophia right here after we separated from Troy. I drew the walkers that followed us way off in that direction up the creek." Rick says pointing in the direction he says he went. "Without a paddle-seems where we've landed." I say so Rick says "She was gone by the time I got back here. I figured she just took off and ran back to the group. I told her to go that way and keep the sun on her left shoulder." Pointing in the direction of the highway. I walk over to the spot and tell Glenn "Hey, Short Round, why don't you step off to one side? You're mucking up the trail." "Assuming she knows her left from her right." Shane says. "Shane, she understood me fine." Rick says so Shane says "Kid's tired and scared, man. She and Troy had a close call with three walkers. Got to wonder how much of what you said stuck." As I look for Sophia's prints I find them and say "Got clear prints right here. Sophia did like you said, headed back to the highway. Let's spread out, make our way back." Getting out of the river as Shane says "They couldn't have gone far." And adds "Hey, we gonna find them. Sophia will be tuckered out hiding in a bush somewhere while Troy is probably yelling at some forest animal or walker and forgot to come back." Looking at Rick. "Troy doesn't forget anything." Glenn says angry and glaring at Shane.

Following the trail I notice it veers off so I kneel and say "Sophia was doing just fine till right here. All she had to do was keep going. She veered off that way." Pointing in the direction she went as Glenn asked "Why would she do that?" "Maybe she saw something that spooked her, made her run off." Shane suggests so Glenn asks "A walker? Troy?" I shake my head and say "I don't see any other footprints. Just hers." "So what do we do? All of us press on?" Shane asks so Rick says "No, better if you and Glenn get back up to the highway. People are gonna start panicking. Let them know we're on their trail doing everything we can. But most of all, keep everybody calm." "I'll keep 'em busy scavenging cars. Think up a few other chores. I'll keep 'em occupied. Come on." Shane says starting to walk back to the highway Glenn follows but doesn't look to happy about it. It was his sister out here after all. I then start leading Rick in the direction Sophia went.

****Troy’s POV****

A walker was circling the ""hole" I was in so I silently watch it. Not even two minutes later I hear someone whistle and the walker roars looking at them. An arrow is then in its head and it falls rolling down the hill. 'Orange and yellow feathers…' I think as I hear Daryl call "Sophia! Troy!" as I see Rick look down at me. "Down there." He says starting to go to slide down so I say “Stop.” And shake my head. He stops and asks "You bit?" And for some reason Daryl slide down the hill and start checking me, an almost worried look on his face. “Ya idiot.” I state as I frown, shake my head, and point to the side of the hill. Daryl slowly looks at it and says "Oh…" "What?" Rick asks staying at the top. "No way up." He replies walking over and taking his arrow from the walkers head. "I'll find something." Rick says and starts searching. I go over next to Daryl and look down at the walker. I sigh and kick it over and notice it fed recently so I frown, look at Daryl, and point at his knife stating “I need that.” "I'll do it." He says as he pulls out his knife. “Go nuts.” I state putting my hands up and stepping away so he stabs it and starts cutting its belly open. He then feels around in it for the stomach, looks at me and says "Yeah, hoss had a big meal not long ago. I feel it in there." Before ripping the stomach out and throwing it on the ground adding "Here's the gut bag." "What are you two doing?" Rick asks having found a fallen tree and pushed it over the hill making a way up. "Checking." Daryl says opening the stomach and stab something inside it, pulling it out he says "This gross bastard had himself a woodchuck for lunch." "At least we know." Rick says as I start climbing up the hill. "At least we know." Daryl says back before also climbing up the hill. I get to the top and Rick says "I found this. I believe it's yours." Holding my knife out to me. “That it is.” I state taking it from him and then taking the sheath out of my pocket, putting it on the knife, and putting it back in my pocket. It's getting late when Sophia's trail goes cold, so we decide to head back to the highway and pick up Sophia's trail in the morning. Coming out of the woods I get tackled by Glenn as Carol says "You didn't find her?" "Her trail went cold. We'll pick it up again at first light." Rick says as I try to get Glenn off me but he's hugging me like he thought he would never see me again. "You can't leave my daughter out there on her own to spend the night alone in the woods." Carol says so Daryl says "Out in the dark's no good. We'd just be tripping over ourselves. More people'd get lost." "But she's 12. She can't be out there on her own. You didn't find anything?" Carol says so Rick says "I know this is hard. But I'm asking you not to panic. We know she was out there." Daryl jumps in and says "And we tracked her for a while." So Rick adds "We have to make this an organized effort. Daryl and Troy knows the woods better than anybody. I've asked them to oversee this." Looking at Carol but she's looking at Daryl and asks "Is that blood?" and starts breathing heavy. "We took down a walker." Rick says causing Carol to panic and say "Walker? Oh, my God." So Rick quickly says "There was no sign it was ever anywhere near Sophia." "How can you know that?" Andrea asks so Rick looks at Daryl who says "We cut the son of a bitch open, made sure." Glenn finally let's go of me when Carol asks Rick "How could you just leave her out there to begin with? How could you just leave her?" "Those two walkers were on us. I had to draw them off. It was her best chance." Rick says to her so Shane says "Sounds like he didn't have a choice, Carol." "How was she supposed to find her way back on her own? She's just a child. She's just a child." Carol accuses Rick who says quickly "It was the only option. The only choice I could make." "I'm sure nobody doubts that." Shane says as everyone looks at Rick. Carol starts crying and says "My little girl got left in the woods." Clearly blaming Rick who already blames himself.

She walks away then so I sigh and stop Lori from following saying “Let me talk to her.” Before walking over to Carol. “Carol.” I say when I stand next to her as she stares out into the woods causing her to ask “What do you want Troy?” “I wanna tell ya something that only Glenn and a few other people knew about before all this.” I say looking up at the sky growing orange. “What could you possibly say?” She asks angrily so I sigh out the start of my story “My father wasn’t always a nice man.” She looks at me then so I look at her and continue “But because of that he met and saved my mother. He cut all ties, sold everything, moved to Michigan, and happened to move next to the Rhee’s. They had me and everything was going good…Then when I was ten they found us. Killed them and kidnaped me to replace my mother for me…When I was twelve I managed to escape and found my way back home. I’m telling you this because I believe Sophia can do the same. And unlike me, she’s got people looking for her.” She shakes her head so I sigh and push up one of my sleeves saying “I’m not lying.” causing her to gasp out “I’m so sorry Troy.” “Its fine just like how Sophia will be.” I tell her causing her to hug me saying “Thank you Troy.” She lets go so I push my sleeve back down and place a hand on her shoulder before turning and heading over to where Glenn stood by the R.V. watching us.

“You told her...” He says trailing off not voicing the question so I say “I’m not a little girl anymore Glenn.” “I know that. But you’re my sister and I care about you.” He says defensive so I step closer to him and rest my forehead on his chest muttering “It’s not like I care about you or anything either.” He chuckles and pulls me into another hug saying “I love you too.” I step away after a few minutes so he says “You still haven’t told me what you were doing in Daryl’s room.” “Nothing happened between us.” I state causing him to say “I don’t believe you. Why were you in his room then?” I sigh glancing around to make sure no one else was listening before whispering “Shane, drunk off his ass tried raping me. I ended up escaping into Daryl’s room. That’s all.” “What?!” He screeches so I say “I’m fine. Nothing happened.” “You’re the one who gave him the scratches?” he asks quietly so I shake my head saying “Na, I bit his hand. I think Lori’s the one who did that.” “Are you sure? She’s his best friend’s wife.” He says so I nod saying “Yeah. He said ‘Now that Merle’s gone and Rick’s back you’ll have to do.’” “What’d he mean by ‘now that Merle’s gone’?” He asks so I shrug and say “No fucking clue. Maybe he thought something was going on between us.” “Was there?” He asks then so I give him a ‘Are you kidding me?’ look and say “Of course not. Why would you think that?” “Well, he would listen to you without complaining, the only woman he didn’t hit on was you, he got really pissed off when you got hit, and you went back for him.” He explains so I sigh and say “He did hit on me the first time we met and I basically stabbed him. Don’t know about the other things but I went back for him because he got pissed when I got hit and was chained to the roof because of that.” “He started it.” He says grabbing my shoulders so I shake my head saying “That may be true but I’m the reason that it escalated. You can’t deny that.” He opened his mouth to deny it but closed it knowing I was right. “I’m gonna go scan the woods for Sophia.” I tell him so he drops his hands and with that I walk away.

I detour to the R.V. to grab my bow and quiver then head back over to the edge of the woods and sit down. A few minutes go by and someone sits next to me not saying anything so I keep my focus on the woods. We sit in silence until they ask "You sure you're not hurt." “I’m not stupid.” I growl, wondering what his deal is lately, so he says "Get some sleep. I'll watch for her." Causing me to look at him. Daryl isn't looking at me but at the woods and seems to be thinking something. I sigh and look back at the woods only for him to pull me close to him and order "Sleep." “What the fuck? Let go.” I order and try to pull away, not liking the warm and safe feeling bubbling up in my chest again, but he's holding me tight so I give up, rest my head on his shoulder, and mutter “I hate you.” I swear I heard him mutter “Me too.” before I end up falling asleep.

****Glenn's POV****

I watch as Daryl goes and sits next to Troy. Nothing happens for a while as Rick walks up to me asking "Anything new?" I nod and point at the two. He chuckles and says quietly "Make sure they don't kill each other. Daryl was pretty upset when we found her and asked if she was bit.” “What?” I ask causing him to say “Yeah. All the color drained from his face and he immediately slide down to check her.” Just then Daryl pulls Troy close to him and holds on to her as she tries but fails to pull away. She gives up and rests her head on his shoulder, he looks at her and he isn’t glaring at her but smiling at her before he quickly goes back to neutral and looks back at the woods. "I feel like I saw something I shouldn't have." I say slowly looking at Rick who nods and says "I was right." We walk away as I ask "When?" "Didn’t you see his face when we got you two back?" Rick asked. I think back to that day and breathe out "Oh my God." "I don't think they know the extent of their own feelings yet though." Rick says so I ask “They?” “I think Troy likes him too.” Rick says so I shake my head saying “Na uh. Nope. Troy doesn’t like him. No way. My sister does not like Daryl.” Just then Dale comes from behind a car saying “Those two…they have something special and rare. That's why they can't see it and get in fights all the time. It'll be best to just let them figure it out themselves. If you push them they might run. Or being how each of them are…kill each other.”

****Time Skip****

Rick puts the weapons Carl found on a car hood and says "Everybody takes a weapon." But Andrea says "These aren't the kind of weapons we need. What about the guns?" "We've been over that. Daryl, Rick, Troy, and I are carrying. We can't have people popping off rounds every time a tree rustles." Shane says as Troy hands me a weapon from one of the ones on the hood and heads back over to the edge of the woods to wait for us. "It's not the trees I'm worried about." Andrea says as I inspect the hatchet Troy gave me so Shane says "Say somebody fires at the wrong moment, a herd happens to be passing by. See, then it's game over for all of us. So you need to get over it." Daryl then says "The idea is to take the creek up about five miles, turn around and come back down the other side. Chances are she'll be by the creek. It's her only landmark." "Stay quiet and stay sharp. Keep space between you but always stay within sight of each other." Rick says as Daryl walks away from the group and up next to Troy.

****Troy’s POV****

When we start to head out I see Carl is coming with us so I stick behind him as we search. Daryl is leading and I'm in the back watching Carl. He stops and says "Shane, look. Dad said I could carry it and Mom said as long as I was-"but is cut off by Shane being a dick and saying "Keep it down. We're looking for Sophia. You need to focus on the task." Causing Carl to look down and walk slower so Lori says "Got to keep up." "I am." Carl says sad. "You okay?" She asks so he says "I think Shane's mad at me. Did I do something wrong?" "No. No, honey, I promise you. He's just-he's worried about Sophia, that's all." She answers as we come up on a tent we all stop and Shane says "She could be in there." "Could be a whole bunch of things in there." Daryl says saying what I was thinking and walks forward. Rick, Shane, and I follow him as the others stayed back. Daryl takes out his knife and motions for me to follow him as he slowly approaches the tent. We inspect it to see if we can see anything but we can't so I look at Rick and shrug so he says quietly "Carol." And motions for her to come. They approach slowly as Rick says "Call out softly. If she's in there, yours is the first voice she should hear." As Daryl is ready at the front of the tent if it's anything but Sophia. "Sophia, sweetie, are you in there? Sophia, it's Mommy. Sophia. We're all here, baby. It's Mommy." There's no response so Rick approaches as Daryl starts to unzip the door slowly and open it. He coughs as I go in it, it smells bad, but I've smelled worse. He follows me and I poke the body seeing if it will re-animate while muttering “Poke it with a stick.” as Rick and Shane cough and gag outside the tent. "Daryl? Troy?" Carol asks as Daryl takes the gun from the dead body's hand and puts it in the back of his pants. He gets out then and says "It ain't her." "What's in there?" Andrea asks as I get out. "Some guy. Did what Jenner said. Opted out. Ain't that what he called it?" Daryl says. I go to nod but take off in the direction of a bell ringing. They follow me as Carol says "If we hear them, maybe Sophia does too." So Glenn says "Someone's ringing those bells, maybe calling others." "Or signaling that they found her." Andrea says causing Rick to say "She could be ringing them herself. Come on."

A few feet later we make it to the clearing of the church but Shane says "That can't be it. Got no steeple, no bells. Rick, Troy." So I say “Still have to check.” as we continue running to the church. The others follow us as we stop at the doors. Rick motions for the others to be quiet before we open the doors. Three walkers are inside and they slowly turn to face us. Lori gives Rick her machete and Glenn gives Daryl his hatchet as I pull out my knife. Rick goes for the single as Daryl and I go for the pair. Approaching the male as he approaches the female I quickly go around it and sever its brain stem and use its body as a shield against the female as Daryl sneaks up behind her. Making kissing sounds he gets her attention and smacks her in the face with the hatchet having to back up as she falls towards him. 'Rick it's dead.' I tell him in my head looking at him as he keeps hitting the walker with the machete, though don’t voice it as he’s getting out frustration. He then looks up and yells "Sophia!" as Daryl walks towards the statue of Jesus and says "Yo, JC, you taking requests?" "I'm telling you, it's the wrong church. It's got no steeple, Rick. There's no steeple." Shane says just before the bells ring again. Daryl and I make it out of the church first and see the speaker. I go over and turn it off muttering “Bloody hell.” as Daryl says "A timer. It's on a timer." "I'm gonna go back in for a bit." Carol says following me and Daryl into the church. I stand with him in the back of the church when Carol begs god to keep Sophia safe. I look at the ground thinking 'You didn't protect me, but I swear to you that you better protect Sophia. Give her back to us.' Before walking out of the church and seeing Shane and Andrea speaking. I chuckle as the others come out of the church and they immediately stop speaking and walk over to us. Shane walks over to Rick who is a bit away from us and they talk looking forward then at each other every so often. But soon they stop and Shane comes towards us and says "Y'all gonna follow the creek bed back. Okay, Daryl and Troy, you're in charge. Me and Rick, we're just gonna hang back, search this area another hour or so just to be thorough." “Na, I’m going too. Ya’ll don’t know how to track.” I say walking over to stand next to Rick. "You're splitting us up. You sure?" Daryl asks then so Shane says "Yeah, we'll catch up to you." "I want to stay, too. I'm her friend." Carl says causing Shane to look at Rick who looks at Lori who in turn looks at me. I nod so Lori says "Just be careful, okay? Stay with Troy." "I will." Carl says so she hugs him and asks "When did you start growing up?" Rick goes over and gives her a kiss while Carl walks over to stand next to me. Rick hugs her and says "I'll be along soon enough." “Don’t be stupid.” Glenn tells me so I chuckle and say “You too.” As Shane and Andrea have a staring contest. Rick tries to give Lori his gun then but she says "I'm not taking your gun and leaving you unarmed." "Here, got a spare. Take it." Daryl says handing her the gun from the tent. He then looks at me and nods, as if telling me to be careful, before walking in front of the group as Andrea scoffs. ‘What the actual fuck is up with him?!’ I yell in my head as we then split up. "Give me a minute?" Rick asks us before walking into the church. Shane rubs Carl's head and says "Come on." Before the two follow Rick to the church. I follow them and sit next to Carl on the steps as we wait for Rick. Rick comes out so Shane asks "Get what you needed?" "Guess I'll find out." Rick says walking off. Carl looks at me and I shrug so we get up follow him with Shane behind us.

****Time skip****

I'm leading them when we get into the woods. A branch snaps so I stop and pull Carl behind me. We slowly go in the direction of the snap and we see a deer through the branches. We stop and watch it go into a clearing. I look at Carl and he looks at me I nod and we start approaching the deer slowly as Rick whispers "Shane." Getting him to stop pointing his gun at the deer. We're getting closer so Carl looks back at them happy. We continue and he ends up stepping on a stick snapping it and causing the deer to look at us. I stop and let Carl go ahead on his own when I see the glint of the gun. Rushing forward I push him away just before the gun fires. I stumble back feeling the distinct pain of a gunshot radiating from my stomach. “Great…” I breathe out seeing the blood quickly spread on my shirt. I put pressure on the wound as I look at a wide eyed Carl as he stares at my shirt. “You okay little man?” I ask causing his head to snap up and his eyes to meet mine before they water and he nods violently. “That’s go-“ I start to breathe out but before I could finish black floods my vision and I hit the ground.

****Rick’s POV****

            As soon as Troy went down we rush to her as Carl screams “Troy?!” Blood was quickly spreading on her shirt so I apply pressure to the wound. “Let’s take her back-“ Shane starts to say but was cut off by a man coming out of the woods with a rifle in a panic saying “I didn’t see her...There’s a farm about a mile away. Talk to Hershel he’ll help the girl.” I quickly pick her up and ask “Where?!” He could be lying but it was closer than the highway and I couldn’t let her die, she saved Carl’s life so I wasn’t going to let her die. He points then so I take off as fast as I could towards the farm. Carl, Shane, and the man are not far behind and I see the house up ahead and a girl on the porch. “Dad!” She yelled as I got closer. A few people come out then and the old man asks “Was she bit?” "Shot. By your man.” I say out of breath approaching them, Troy getting paler by the minute. “Otis?” the woman asks so I say “He said to find Hershel. You him? Please. Help her." walking closer to the man. He hesitates and looks at Troy before nodding and saying “Get her inside.” Rushing inside. I follow as he says "Patricia, I need my full kit. Maggie, painkillers, coagulates-grab everything. Clean towels, sheets, alcohol." Walking to a room taking off the sheets he says "In here." So I lay Troy as he says "Pillowcase." "Is she alive?" I ask but he doesn’t answer just repeats "Pillowcase, quick." "Is she alive?" I ask again getting the pillowcase but he just says "Fold it. Make a pad. Put pressure on the wound." I do as he says as he gets his stethoscope and listens for Troy's heart. "I've got a heartbeat. It's faint." Hershel says then stepping back says "Maggie, IV. Your name?" "Rick. I'm-I'm Rick." I say staring at Troy’s arm which was covered in scars so Hershel says "Rick we're gonna do everything we can, okay? You need to give us some room. Now." I nod and step out of the room to see Carl, Shane, and Otis, the man who shot Troy and almost shot Carl coming up to the farm.

            I went out to the porch. I didn’t know what I would do if it was actually Carl that was on that bed, shot. “Is she alive?” Otis asks but I didn’t reply now realizing just how much of Troy’s blood I was covered in. “Dad? Is Troy going to be okay? She saved me.” Carl says tears streaming down his face so I look at Shane and say “I don’t know but we need to get Glenn and the rest over here fast.” “How are we gettin’ ‘em here?” Shane asks so I shake my head not knowing. “Where is she?” Carl asks then so I lead them to the room I was just in. Shane’s face drains of color and Carl starts crying harder immediately, seeing the state Troy was in as Hershel tends to her. “Do you know her blood type?” He asks me as Carl walks up to her and grabs her hand so I shake my head. “That’s unfortunate. We can’t do anything unless we know her blood type. She’ll bleed out and die in minutes if I attempt to do anything.” He says looking at us so I say “Thank you for helping us.” He nods and turns his attention back to Troy so I go back to Shane saying “We need to get Glenn here fast.” “Where is he? I’ll go get him.” A girl with short hair says coming up to us. I told her to get Glenn Rhee, where they were, and she took off.

Hershel comes out of the room a few minutes later and asks “What happened?” "I was tracking a buck. Bullet went through it. Went clean through." Otis says so Hershel shakes his head and says "The deer slowed the bullet down, as did the scar tissue, which certainly saved her life. But it did not go through clean. It broke up into pieces. If we can get the bullet fragments out…I'm counting six. But like I said I can’t do anything unless we know her blood type."

****Maggie’s POV****

            Hearing screaming up ahead I kick Rose’s sides saying “Heah.” She run then in the direction of the screaming and I see a walker attacking a blonde girl. I pull out my bat and whacked it on the head. “Glenn? Glenn Rhee?” I ask hoping I had the right group of people as I look around at them, none of them looked like the woman though. “I’m Glenn.” The cute Asian guy speaks up so I quickly say “Rick sent me, you gotta come now. There’s been an accident, Troy’s been shot. She’s still alive, but you gotta come now.” Thinking ‘Stop Maggie. She’s obviously his girlfriend.’ As His eyes go wide and he immediately takes off his back pack and climbs on as a redneck with a crossbow says “Whoa, whoa, whoa, we don’t know this girl. You can’t get on that horse.” But there was a flicker of worry in his eyes too. “I have to!” Glenn yells at him so I tell them “Rick said you had others on the highway? That big traffic snarl? Backtrack to Fairburn Road. Two miles down is our farm, you’ll see the mailbox. Name’s Greene.” Before kicking Rose’s sides again and we took off.

****Glenn’s POV****

            We arrive at the farm and I don’t even wait for the pretty girl to slow down before jumping off the horse and running up to Rick practically screaming “Where is she?!” “First door on your left.” He says following me as I rush into the room. I feel the tears burn in my eyes the second they land on Troy on the bed, passed out, her clothes stained with blood, and her skin ghostly pale, again…”Do you know her blood type? I can’t do anything until I know her blood type.” The old man at her side says bringing me back to reality so I quickly say “A-Positive.” That’s when Troy’s eyes opened quickly and she tried to get away from the man screaming “Let me go! I’m not Helen!” “Troy!” I yell running to her side as the man yells “Hold her down!” “Hey Troy. You’re okay. You’re okay.” I keep repeating to her as she keeps screaming, Rick and Shane hold her down, and Rick says “I’m A-Positive too. She can have my blood.” “She needs it now.” The man says then as he pulls a metal shard from her. I replace Rick, as he goes over to a woman, hating the utter fear in Troy’s glazed eyes. She wasn’t here…She was back there and then with those bastards. “You’re killing her!” Rick yells when she stops screaming words and just purely screams in pain. “Do you want her to live?” the man asks as I yell at him “Do it now!” Troy need blood and fast. Not even two seconds later Troy goes limp and the room goes quiet. “Wait, wait, wait, what happened?” Shane and I ask the man who says “She just passed out.” He then pulls out another metal shard from her adding “Two down…four to go.”

****Time Skip****

            “She’s strong.” Hershel says taking Troy’s blood pressure as the woman was patching up Rick’s arm from another blood transfusion. “You have no idea.” I say holding her hand in my hands before I look at Rick and say “Thank you.” He nods before I see him want to ask something and I know what is so I say “If she wants to tell you she will. I will not tell you.” “Her pressures stable…for now.” Hershel says then before him and Rick leave me alone with her. “Everything’s going to be fine. You’re going to wake up. You’re going to be here. Not there, here. With me, with everyone.”

****Rick's POV****

We leave Glenn alone and walk into the room where the others were. “She’s out of danger for the moment, but I need to remove those remaining fragments. But they're deep, one must have nicked a blood vessel, and one is almost buried in the scar tissue. I need to go in and stitch it but she can't be moving like this or otherwise or I'll get an artery and she'll be dead in minutes. To even try to help her, I have to put her under. But if I do, she won't be able to breathe on her own. Same bad results." Hershel says bandaging her wounds. "What'll it take?" I ask so Otis says "You need a respirator. What else?" "The tube that goes with it, extra surgical supplies, drapes, sutures." Hershel answers so I ask "If you had all that you could save her?" "If I had all that, I could try." He answers. "Nearest hospital went up in flames a month ago." Otis says but adds "The high school." When Hershel looks at him. "That's what I was thinking. They set up a FEMA shelter there. They would have everything we need." Hershel says so Otis says "Place was overrun last time I saw it. You couldn't get near it. Maybe it's better now." Shane looks at Carl then at door to the room Troy and Glenn were in and says "Doc, why don't you do me a list and draw me a map?" "You won't need a map. I'll take you there. Ain't but five miles." Otis says but Patricia says "Otis no." "Honey, we don't have time for guesswork and I'm responsible. I ain't gonna sit here while this fella takes this on alone. I'll be alright." Otis says so Shane asks "Are you sure about this?" "You even know what any of the stuff he's talking about looks like?" Otis asks so Shane says "Come to think, no." "I've been a volunteer EMT. I do. We can talk about this till next Sunday or we could just go do it real quick." Otis says. "I'll take right quick." Shane says. I look at Otis and say "I should thank you." But he says "Wait till that girl of yours is up and around. Then we'll talk. I'll gather some things.” And walks off. "A little girl goes missing...you look for her. Troy got shot because I wouldn’t cut bait, it should be me in there.” I say then so Shane says “Yeah, you’ve been there partner. You know you start that…you’ll never get that monkey off your back.” "She didn't hesitate to put Carl's life before hers. Yet I can’t do anything but give her blood.” I say so he says “I understand that and I will handle it. But you need to handle your end.” “My end?” I ask so he says “Your end is being here for her and Glenn, to help keep her calm, while I go get the things.” Before pausing and point to the room where they were and adding “That girl in there…she save Carl so I’m not going to let her die. I can promise you that.”

****Lori’s POV****

            T-Dog and I get out of the car and walk towards the farm house. Stopping at the steps I ask “So do we ring the bell? I mean, it looks like people live here.” “We’re past this kind of stuff, aren’t we? Having to be considerate.” T-Dog asks walking up the steps. “Did you close the gate up the road when you drove in?” the girl who came and got Glenn asks. “Yes, we closed it. Did the latch and everything.” I tell her so T-Dog asks but groans “Look, we came to help. There anything we can do?” She looks at him so he says “It’s not a bite. I cut myself pretty bad though.” “We’ll have it looked at. I’ll tell them you’re here.” She says so I say “We have some painkillers and antibiotics. I already gave him some. If Troy needs any.” I say causing her to get a sympathetic look as she says “Come on inside. I’ll make you something to eat.”  Going into the house we follow her in and she leads us into a room saying “Your friends are in here.” Going in the room I gasp at the state Troy is in. Unconscious and ghostly pale causing the multiple scars on her arms and chest to stand out. It hurt to see the strong girl like this, even more so than it did to see the dark bruises that were around her neck and on the side of her face when the Quarry fell. An old man was sitting on the bed with her while Carl and Glenn were on either side of her holding her hands, both have obviously been crying. Rick looked pale too, I’m guessing he gave her his blood to help due to the bandage around his arm. “How’d it happen?” I ask so Rick looks at us and explains “A hunting accident. That’s all it was…Just a stupid accident. Shane and the man that shot her, Otis, went to a high school to get her the things that they need to perform the rest of the surgery.” “She saved me mom. I’m so sorry Glenn.” Carl cries then and I’m surprised by Glenn’s answer “It’s okay. She’ll be fine. She’s my sister after all.” It was then that I decided that they were also my children so I walk over and place a comforting hand on Glenn’s shoulder. That’s when T-Dog says “Whatever you need okay?” Glenn nods slowly so he leaves the room.

            The old man then rolls down the blanket that was covering her stomach, revealing more scars and that it was now purple and bloated. I squeeze Glenn’s shoulder as the old man says “They don’t get back soon, we’re gonna have a decision to make.” “And that is?” I ask so he answers “Whether to operate on her without the respirator.” “You said that wouldn’t work.” Glenn says gripping her hand harder as the man says “I know. It’s extremely unlikely. But we can’t wait much longer.” “Why don’t you get something to eat? We’ll stay with her.” I then tell Glenn so he slowly releases her hand and walks out of the room looking defeated. That’s when I turn to the man and say "Okay, so I understand, when Shane gets back with this other man-""Otis." He supplies but I continue "Otis. The idiot who shot my kid." "Ma'am, it was an accident." He says but I grab her unnaturally cold hand saying "I'll take that under advisement later. For now he's the idiot who shot our kid." "Lori, they're doing everything they can to make it right." Rick says so I ask "Okay, as soon as they get back you can perform this surgery?" "I'll certainly do my best." The man answers so I ask "Okay. You've done this procedure before?" "Well, yes, in a sense." He says so I ask "In a sense?" Causing Rick to say "Honey, we don't have the luxury of shopping for a surgeon." "No, I understand that. But I mean you're a doctor, right?" I ask. "Yes, ma'am. Of course. A vet." He says so I ask, with a little hope now, "A veteran? A combat medic?" "A veterinarian." He answers causing both mine and Rick’s faces to fall, losing what little hope we had, so I ask "And you've done this surgery before on what? Cows? Pigs?" He nods so I ask “Completely in over your head, aren't you?" "Ma'am aren't we all?"

 

 


End file.
